Take now or pass a larger pot along?
The centipede game makes the tension between immediate advantage and mutually growing gains visible one move at a time.
Inside this model
The initial pot is 4 and doubles after each pass. Taking pays the mover 80% and the other player 20%. The opponent independently passes at the chosen probability. A user pass prompts one opponent choice; at the final permitted decision the active player takes automatically. The plot compares pot size and the payoff for taking at each node.
Out in the world
A practical use
In a collaboration, each side may want the other to make one more investment while retaining the option to claim the current return.
A useful lens. Not a universal law.
- The partner is a fixed stochastic policy, not a strategic learner. This short game is a teaching variant of a broader family of centipede payoff schedules.
Further reading
Explore the original research or the teaching reference behind this experiment.
Robert Rosenthal — Games of perfect information, predatory pricing and the chain-store paradox ↗