Science News

What is power? According to Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, game theory expert and author of The Dictator’s Handbook, it’s the ability to get other people to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. Game theory, in a nutshell, is a method of predicting human behavior in a given situation based on the motives of the players involved. And when it comes to people in power, says de Mesquita, their primary motive – the one that most reliably predicts their behavior – is to stay in power.

Human nature has deep evolutionary roots and is manifested in relationships with family members, friends, romantic and business partners, competitors, and strangers more than in any other aspects of behavior or intellectual activity, contends a University of Chicago behavioral biologist.