The Weapon of the Weak: An Analysis of RDEU Game in the Conflict of Farmland Expropriation under the Influence of Emotion

During land expropriation, it is difficult to form a real antagonistic relationship between farmers and the local Government due to disparities, which means the confrontations between them are difficult to administer. The confrontation between both parties could lead to the distortion of the farmers’ resisting logic, who are supposed to be in a vulnerable position. Hence, the farmers are not necessarily in a weak position; sometimes, they even have advantages compared with the local governments. Through the combination of Quiggin’s rank-based expected utility theory and evolutionary game theory, this paper constructs a conflict-induced game mechanism Rank-Dependent Expected Utility Theory (RDEU) evolutionary game model and discusses the evolution law of strategic behavior of land-expropriated farmers and local governments under the influence of emotion. The software simulation results show that when the farmers at the weak side think that the probability of the government adopting the strong strategy is higher than a certain cut-off point, the farmers will use the weapon of the weak to release the signal that endangers the order and force the government to adopt a compromise strategy by utilizing authoritative preference for stability. Through the interaction of heterogeneous beliefs between farmers and the government, the game of land expropriation will form an evolutionary stable equilibrium.

A Bayesian Method for Characterizing Population Heterogeneity

A stylized fact from laboratory experiments is that there is much heterogeneity in human behavior. We present and demonstrate a computationally practical non-parametric Bayesian method for characterizing this heterogeneity. In addition, we define the concept of behaviorally distinguishable parameter vectors, and use the Bayesian posterior to say what proportion of the population lies in meaningful regions. These methods are then demonstrated using laboratory data on lottery choices and the rank-dependent expected utility model. In contrast to other analyses, we find that 79% of the subject population is not behaviorally distinguishable from the ordinary expected utility model.

Analysis of the RDEU Game Model in Mass Emergencies with Maintained Legal Rights by Emotion

The emotional factor in mass emergencies with maintained legal rights significantly influences the decision-making of the powerful and vulnerable groups and the course of events. In this paper, we established the game model of rank-dependent expected utility for the powerful and vulnerable groups in mass emergencies with maintained legal rights. And we also explored the influence of different emotional states on the results of strategic equilibrium of both sides of a game. Results show that the behaviours of the powerful or vulnerable groups are not only affected by the choice of their other strategies, but also influenced by the degree of emotion. The more optimistic they are, the more inclined they are to solve the mass emergencies with maintained legal rights; the more pessimistic they are, the more inclined they are to take extreme resistance behaviours and the more likely pessimism is to adversely affect the two groups’ behaviour choices. The numerical simulation with MATLAB further validates this conclusion. Therefore, the emotions of both sides should be controlled and understood when managing mass emergencies to solve problems effectively and reasonably.