A Quantum Information Processing Explanation of Disjunction Effects

A new approach to game theory based on quantum strategies is used to explain some paradoxical phenomena of human choice behavior. Quantum strategies were originally used to explain the fact that humans prefer to cooperate rather than defect in a Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) game. Here we develop a quantum model for the disjunction effect. This refers to a paradox in which (a) a player prefers to defect when the player knows that an opponent will defect, and (b) the player also prefers to defect when the player knows that an opponent will cooperate, but (c) the player reverses preference and cooperates when the opponent’s action is unknown. New experimental findings on the disjunction effect are reported, and a quantum explanation for the findings is presented. The quantum model is also compared to traditional information processing models