Malicious players wreak havoc on system efficiency, study finds.
Game theory has shown that selfish behavior can make systems work poorly. This study goes further by looking at how malicious players affect system efficiency. They introduce the concept of the Price of Malice to measure this impact. By studying a game about virus spread, they find that malicious players can make the system work even worse than selfish players. However, in some cases, selfish players who are very cautious can actually improve the overall system.