In today’s world, you probably belong to a variety of social networks, like your school friends, family, sports teams, and online communities, where each interaction can be likened to playing a "game" with specific rules and rewards. For instance, you might interact differently with classmates than you do with family members.

Human decision-making is critical to voluntary vaccination programs. In a recent study, published in PLoS Computational Biology, researchers from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, have modelled the outcomes of such programs using game theory. Game theory is a branch of mathematics that studies how agents in an interaction make strategic decisions.

Corruption and bribe is a social evil in our society and needs to be weeded out  to achieve progress. Though giving and taking bribe are illegal, instances of both are rampant. What can be done to address this? A new study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research may provide some clues towards this. Using game theory, they have shown how legalizing the act of giving bribe can help victims to blow the whistle on corrupt officers and thus, help reduce corruption.