Well, it’s true that you can’t really logic your way out of this particular pickle – but sometimes, game theory can do what pure reason can’t. Could this be one of those instances?

A simple model developed by a RIKEN researcher and a collaborator predicts the emergence of self-organized institutions that manage limited resources such as fisheries or irrigation water. This model ...

In our view, it involves game theory, a mathematical framework that helps explain how reasonable people can make choices that collectively lead to outcomes that endanger them.