Learning from personal experience: One rational guy and the justification of myopia

The paper examines a large population analog of fictitious play in which players learn from personal experience, focusing on what happens when a single rational player is added to the population. Because the learning process naturally generates contagion dynamics, the rational player at times has an incentive to act nonmyopically. In 2 X 2 games the dynamics are asymmetric and favor risk dominant equilibria. A variety of other examples are presented. (C) 1997 Academic Press.