Are life and death just a game?: Mathematics says they follow the same rules. Photo from the National Park Service.

Game theory is a branch of mathematics that attempts to explain how people make choices by weighing costs and benefits. It can be applied not just to games, but to all kinds of serious situations – business, politics, even war.

This report (abstract free; $ to download complete report) argues that even terrorists use classic game theory to maximize the impacts of their attacks:

We find that more educated and older suicide bombers are less likely to fail in their mission, and are more likely to cause increased casualties when they attack.

Knowing this, I wonder if anti-terrorist efforts are focusing more on those older, educated operatives, to minimize the threat of attack.

*(It's also the name of an '80s band, but that's neither here nor there.)

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