play, imitation, reinforcement learning, and a trial & error process. We test whether subjects try to influence those … and that all learning algorithms are subject to exploitation with the notable exception of imitation. The experiment was …

We introduce a generalized theoretical approach to study imitation and subject it to rigorous experimental testing. In … our theoretical analysis we find that the different predictions of previous imitation models are due to different … effects of seemingly innocent changes in information. Moreover, the generalized imitation model predicts the differences …

be beaten by any strategy. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for imitation to be unbeatable in the sense … that there is no strategy that can exploit imitation as a money pump. In particular, imitation is subject to a money pump … sufficient condition for imitation not being subject to a money pump is that the relative payoff game is a generalized ordinal …

beaten by any other decision rule. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for imitation to be unbeatable and show … effort coordination games, arms race, search, bargaining, etc., imitation cannot be beaten by much even by a very clever …

beaten by any strategy. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for imitation to be unbeatable in the sense that there … is no strategy that can exploit imitation as a money pump. In particular, imitation is subject to a money pump if and … condition for imitation not being subject to a money pump is that the relative payoff game is a generalized ordinal potential …

beaten by any other decision rule. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for imitation to be unbeatable and show … effort coordination games, arms race, search, bargaining, etc., imitation cannot be beaten by much even by a very clever …