Game-Theoretic Frameworks for Epidemic Spreading and Human Decision-Making: A Review

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology and Public Health
• Game Theory and Decision Science
• Mathematical Modeling

Background:

• Human decision-making significantly impacts epidemic dynamics, yet integrating these factors into epidemic models remains complex.
• Traditional epidemic models often overlook the strategic choices individuals and authorities make during outbreaks.
• Game-theoretic approaches offer a powerful framework for analyzing these strategic interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and synthesize existing research on epidemic models coupled with human decision-making.
• To highlight the growing importance of game theory in understanding epidemic response.
• To identify key challenges and future research directions in this interdisciplinary field.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive literature review of epidemic models and decision-making strategies.
• Development of a multi-dimensional taxonomy to categorize existing studies.
• Analysis of game-theoretic models, including differential, stochastic, evolutionary, and static games.
• Proposal of a dynamic game framework for epidemic decision-making.

Main Results:

• Existing literature integrates epidemic and decision models through various game-theoretic approaches.
• Key interventions like social distancing, vaccination, and quarantine are analyzed within different game types.
• A taxonomy categorizes studies by game type, intervention, and decision-maker.
• Three representative frameworks demonstrate integrating game theory into epidemic modeling.

Conclusions:

• Game-theoretic models are crucial for understanding human behavior during epidemics.
• Further research is needed to address open problems in developing, analyzing, and mitigating epidemic spread under human decision-making.
• The proposed dynamic game framework offers a novel perspective for future studies.