Art of Chicken - The Game

The game of Chicken, also known as the Hawk-Dove game, is an influential model of conflict for two players in game theory. The principle of the game is that while each player prefers not to yield to the opponent, the outcome where neither player yields is the worst possible one for both players.

Mathematically, Chicken and Hawk-Dove are identical; the different names stem from parallel development of the basic principles in different research areas. "Chicken", is most prevalent in the political science and economics literatures, while "Hawk-Dove" is most commonly used in the biological and evolutionary game theory literatures. The game is similar to the prisoner's dilemma in that an "agreeable" mutual solution is unstable since both players are individually tempted to stray from it.