Teaching the Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma With a Computerized Tournament

The authors present a constructivist approach for teaching game theory, on the basis, in part, of Axelrod’s research approach. Using the Axelrod tournament multi-user system (ATMUS) software, students create strategies for a repeated prisoner’s dilemma (RPD). Later, these strategies are matched with those of their classmates’ in a classroom tournament while the instructor interactively and graphically demonstrates the behavior of the strategies. A two- to three-week instructional implementation strategy is provided to highlight effective use of the ATMUS software, according to constructivist learning principles, to ensure that students are engaged in critical thinking regarding RPD.