Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

For four years now, we have been conducting "medium-scale" experiments in how human subjects behave in strategic and economic settings mediated by an underlying network structure. We have explored a wide range of networks inspired by generative models from the literature, and a diverse set of collective strategic problems, including biased voting, graph coloring, consensus, and networked trading. These experiments have yielded a wealth of both specific findings and emerging general themes about how populations of human subjects interact in strategic networks. I will review these findings and themes, with an emphasis on the many more questions they raise than answer.