Game Theory and Decision-Making!
Past Current Events
Ell for the Win
Any X of Y
Chess
Double Jeopardy
400
In the payoff matrix shown here, this is the strictly dominant strategy in non-repeated games.
What is Betray?
400
Two weeks ago the state House of Representatives in Montana passed a bill seeking to totally ban this social media app after concerns about its connections to China.
What is TikTok?
400
This is the full name of the U.S. government agency that gathers intelligence on other countries, and has been supporting Ukraine in its defense against Russia
What is the Central Intelligence Agency?
400
These are any five member states of NATO.
What are (five of) Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States (all 1949). Greece, Türkiye (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), Czechia, Hungary, Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia (2004), Albania, Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017), North Macedonia (2020), Finland (2023)?
400
This Scandinavian country funds its strong social welfare program partly by being among the world’s top per-capita oil producers, and is home to the 2013-2023 World Chess Champion!
What is Norway?
400
If we were to look toward the sun at noon, this is the direction we’d be looking in.
What is south? (Or, "up and south")
800
Continuing on with a policy or project purely because you have already paid something for it, even though doing so will not lead to profit or benefit, is a result of falling for this logical fallacy.
What is the Sunk Cost Fallacy?
800
Former President Donald Trump has been charged with 34 counts of bookkeeping fraud by Alvin L. Bragg, the Attorney General of this state.
What is New York?
800
This is the approximate dollar amount (within 20%) of EPA’s “Value of a Statistical Life,” which it uses to calculate fines for pollution and other environmental hazards.
What is Eleven Million Dollars?
800
This is any one of the examples we used of a persuasive political speech that utilizes repeated patterns and rhythms to get the audience engaged. Naming either the topic or the speaker counts.
Who is (any of) Lincoln, Kennedy, Obama, Reagan, Clinton?
800
This is the nationality that gives its name to the opening pictured here, and is the nationality of the protestors rallying against raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
What is French?
800
As opposed to the operative clause, this is the section of a law that generally describes its purpose and reasoning.
What is the Preambulatory Clause?
1200
This is the term for a situation in which everyone individually chooses how much of a common resource to take for their own benefit, leading to unsustainable over-harvesting.
What is the Tragedy of the Commons?
(For example, everyone individually choosing to talk to their neighbor while a teacher is trying to speak. Or, climate change.)
1200
In 2022, war caused more deaths in this country than in any other.
1200
This former Marine released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, revealing that the government had been dishonest about the state of the Vietnam War.
Who is Daniel Ellsberg?
1200
These are any two of the words in the Brandenburg test of whether incitement to violence can be restricted.
What is (any two of) “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.” (Different conjugations of the same word count.)
1200
This country currently has the third-most nuclear weapons, and is home to the current Women's World Chess Champion.
What is China? (Champion: Ju Wenjun)
1200
This molecule is a pollutant in cities, but its layer in the stratosphere protects us from UV radiation.
What is ozone?
1600
If you are playing a Brinkmanship/Chicken game such as the one below, this is the payoff you receive if both you and your opponent actually played the strategy that you want your opponent to think you'll play.
What is negative 10?
1600
A warrant for Putin’s arrest, for the war crime of “unlawful deportation of population (children)” was issued in March by this international judicial body.
What is the International Criminal Court?
1600
According to Freedom House, about 58% of countries are in this category, indicating that the people have the ability to remove leaders from power.
What is Electoral Democracy?
1600
This is any one of the types of locations that has tested the use of facial recognition technology, spurring policy debate around privacy and identification.
What is (one of, e.g.,) airports, festivals, and arena ticketing? (There are other possible legitimate answers.)
1600
This is the number of times NATO's Article 5 (mutual defense) has been invoked, or the number of moves necessary for the white pieces to achieve checkmate.
What is 1?
1600
This is the term of art used in international treaties to refer to what we colloquially call “war.”
What is armed conflict?
2000
When deciding how much weight to give a scientific study that might influence your political decision-making, it’s important to remember that this is what’s really being measured by the “p-value,” typically measured on a scale from 0 to 1.
What is: the probability of getting a result of at least the observed magnitude, IF the tested claim is false?
2000
Bola Tinubu, of the governing All Progressives Congress party, won a close election in this country, the most populous on its continent, with 36.6% of the vote, over Atiku Abubakar at 29.1% and Peter Obi at 25.4%.
What is Nigeria?
2000
This is the name of the Supreme Court Justice who, in 1919, opined first that one couldn’t falsely shout fire in a crowded theater (justifying the detention of anti-military draft activism), and then that even loathsome speech should be protected.
Who is Oliver Wendell Holmes?
2000
These are any two common arguments for and/or against relatively unrestricted international trade (i.e. free trade agreements).
What are (any two of, e.g.,) economic benefits for both trading countries, increased access to (cheaper) goods, supply chain weaknesses, undercutting local less-competitive sectors?
2000
This country borders both the Central African Republic and Niger, and its name uses letters that correspond to “semi-open files”/"half-open files" in the pictured chess position.
What is Chad?
2000
Developing nations wanted to call it “Compensation,” and climate activists wanted to call it “Reparations,” but this is the actual name of the fund established at COP27 to address the effects of climate change.
What is Loss and Damages?