Robert Axelrod is an American political scientist best known for transforming the study of cooperation through game theory. A professor at the University of Michigan, he gained international recognition for his pioneering research on the prisoner’s dilemma—a simple game that models trust and betrayal. By running computer tournaments in the 1980s, Axelrod showed that strategies rooted in reciprocity, like “tit for tat,” can outperform more cutthroat approaches, offering a powerful explanation for how cooperation can evolve even among selfish actors.
His work bridges political science, economics, biology, and psychology, earning him a reputation as one of the foremost thinkers on conflict and collaboration. Axelrod’s insights have been applied to fields as varied as international relations, cancer research, and the spread of norms in online communities. Awarded honors such as the National Academy of Sciences membership and the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, he remains a key figure in understanding how societies and systems find stability—or spiral into mistrust.
