Rock–Scissors–Paper and evolutionarily stable strategies

This paper argues that Rock–Scissors–Paper is a stochastic game with discounting. Provided that the discount factor is less than 1, it has an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS). This result contrasts with the one-shot normal form game, which is the customary representation of Rock–Scissors–Paper. It reconciles the finding that mutant players who tie against each other forever are never observed in real-world play of Rock–Scissors–Paper with a basic prediction of evolutionary game theory.