evolutionarily stable strategy

• evolutionary stable strategy (misconstruction)

Coined by British biologist John Maynard Smith in 1972 in his paper Game Theory and The Evolution of Fighting.

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evolutionarily stable strategy (plural evolutionarily stable strategies)

1. (evolutionary theory, game theory) A strategy that, when adopted by a population, is effective and unlikely to be replaced by another strategy.

   Synonym: ESS

   • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene:

     To be an evolutionarily stable strategy, remember, a strategy must not be invadable, when it is common, by a rare mutant strategy.

   • 1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene:

     An evolutionarily stable strategy is a strategy that does well against copies of itself.

• ESS (initialism)

• Nash equilibrium