Okay, Adam, now we’ve got a genuine academic working on this with us.

Over at his blog Cheap Talk, Sandeep Baliga–who teaches mangerial economics at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and specializes in game theory–takes a look at our ongoing effort to frame the decisionmaking involved in the House health care vote. He thinks this is actually a game of “Chicken”:

Tumulty suggests the underlying game is the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Some of her commenters suggest the game is similar to the free-rider problem is provision of pubic goods. The free-rider problem is very similar to a Prisoner’s Dilemma so really the commenters are echoing her interpretation though they may not realize it.

I claim the interesting version of the game for Democratic Representatives in conservative districts is Chicken. Two cars race towards each other on a road. Each driver can swerve out of the way or drive straight. If one swerves while the other does not, the former loses and the latter wins. If neither swerves, there is a terrible crash. If both swerve, both lose. A variant on this game is immortalized in the James Dean movie “Rebel without a Cause”.

And he adds: