A strategy is dominant if, regardless of what any other players do, the strategy earns a player a larger payoff than any other.
Hence, a strategy is dominant if it is always better than any other strategy, for any profile of other players' actions.
Depending on whether "better" is defined with weak or strict inequalities, the strategy is termed strictly dominant or
weakly dominant.
If one strategy is dominant, than all others are
dominated.
For example, in the prisoner's dilemma, each player has a dominant strategy.
updated: 22 August 2006
HOW TO CITE THIS ENTRY
- To learn more:
- See news articles on normal-form games.
- Play the repeated prisoner's dilemma on the applets page.
- The Prisoner's dilemma is featured in many movies.