Test the other player's incentives
Round 1/6Trust 50Score 0
Do not ask only “is this promise good?” Ask “what does the other actor gain if they keep or break it?”
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08 · INCENTIVES & NĪTI
08 · INCENTIVES & NĪTI
Hitopadeśa Strategy
Read a situation, infer incentives, and design a commitment that makes cooperation testable instead of trusting appearances.
YOUR OBJECTIVEBuild a strategy that gains useful information while limiting irreversible exposure.
HOW TO PLAYChoose a move each round, commit it, and inspect how the strategy changes trust and robustness across repeated interactions.
TEXTUAL LENSInspired by Hitopadeśa and wider nīti traditions of prudence, counsel, incentives and social strategy; stories are used as reasoning problems rather than moral slogans.
Learning note: This is a modern interactive model inspired by selected texts and traditions. It is not a substitute for reading the primary sources, and the game does not claim that one interpretation represents every Sanātana tradition.