Behavioral and Brain Sciences


Short Communication

Bridging psychology and game theory yields interdependence theory


Paul A. M. Van Lange a1 and Marcello Gallucci a1

a1 Department of Social Psychology, Free University, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands pam.van.lange@psy.vu.nl m.gallucci@psy.vu.nl

Abstract

This commentary focuses on the parts of psychological game theory dealing with preference, as illustrated by team reasoning, and supports the conclusion that these theoretical notions do not contribute above and beyond existing theory in understanding social interaction. In particular, psychology and games are already bridged by a comprehensive, formal, and inherently psychological theory, interdependence theory (Kelley & Thibaut 1978; Kelley et al. 2003), which has been demonstrated to account for a wide variety of social interaction phenomena.