The Science of Games: Gamification, Strategy and Trust from BBC Inside Science at Green Man Festival

BBC Inside Science broadcasts a live Green Man Festival episode on the science of games, exploring why people play, how we plan and deceive in competitive settings, and how game theory relates to everyday life. The panel—Gillie Forrester, Katie Steckel, and Jazz Singh—unpacks why play builds cognitive and social skills, demonstrates a modern version of the prisoner's dilemma, and surveys real-world gamification from language apps to citizen science.

The discussion weaves evolution, mathematics, and media into a portrait of games as learning laboratories that train our brains, influence our decisions, and shape our interactions, while also examining the pressures of high-stakes play and the psychology of trust.

Overview: Why we play and learn through games

The episode opens with a live audience at Green Man Festival and a panel including Gillie Forrester, Katie Steckel, and Jazz Singh, who explore why humans are drawn to games. Gillie explains that play is evolutionary, common across social species, and serves as safe practice for future challenges, offering cognitive, problem-solving, and resource-based rewards. Jazz frames life-like games as intense adrenaline experiences where players seek an end goal, often feeling all-or-nothing pressure. Katie expands the view to artificial intelligence, noting a spectrum of game types from perfect information games like chess to games with probability and human motivation, highlighting how AI excels when information is complete but struggles with predicting human behavior.

“We play games to practise for the future,” - Gillie Forrester

Together they discuss how subgoals and non-linear strategies reveal how humans and AI learn, cooperate, and adapt, with Gillie emphasising cross-species creativity in problem-solving and the role of learning in complex tasks.

Game theory in action: The share or steal demonstration

The hosts stage a live “share or steal” game to illustrate the prisoners' dilemma. Two participants must decide whether to share or steal; the best strategic move is often to steal, yet mutual sharing leads to the best joint outcome. Katie articulates the classic result from game theory: greed can undermine collective benefit, but cooperation can arise with trust and repeated interactions. The demonstration foregrounds how people balance self-interest with social signals, and how trust affects decisions in ambiguous situations.

“The best option strategically is always to steal,” - Katie Steckel

Trust, deception, and nonverbal cues

The discussion moves to deception as a strategic component of games. Gillie explains that humans are multimodal communicators, constantly interpreting eyes, posture, and language against a history of interactions. The minimization effect is introduced, suggesting people sometimes focus on one channel of information to detect truth. Audience questions probe neurodiversity and timing differences in social interaction, reinforcing the idea that behavior is highly variable and context-dependent. The panel emphasizes patterns over time to assess authenticity, while acknowledging that different people attend to different cues under pressure.

Gamification in daily life and beyond

Gamification is defined as applying game reward structures to real tasks. Katie cites examples like Duolingo, to-do lists that award XP for tasks, and conservation apps like iNaturalist that make nature observation engaging. Gillie explains the neural basis for gamified rewards: dopamine responses to micro-rewards drive engagement. The conversation spans education, habit formation, and citizen science, showing how pattern recognition, motivation, and social interaction adapt when life itself is framed as a game.

Takeaways and audience reflection

In closing, Jazz reflects on strategies for faithful players in social games, while Gillie and Katie connect game theory with everyday decision-making, learning, and trust. The audience shifts between faithful and traitor roles, illustrating the dynamic balance of risk and collaboration in social ecosystems. The episode leaves listeners with a nuanced view of games as both entertainment and powerful cognitive tools that shape learning, trust, and behavior in the modern world.