Even mathematical economists tell stories (McCloskey 1990). And in doing so, they join themselves with the rest of the human race which has, since before recorded history began, made sense of their lives in such terms. The tales they tell are often fanciful ones; many have longterm ideological pedigrees. Sometimes they seem like mathematical fictions. In any case, we find it suggestive to think of such tales as political economy fairy tales. They are a pervasive, long enduring, and often little noticed aspect of our lives.

With a lively and contestational historical sense, we wish here to investigate the relationships between story telling, human motivations and economic activity in the particular context of Asymmetric Sequential Prisoner's Dilemma (ASPD) games. These relationships – and the history that they embody – are frequently unobserved by those fascinated by the prominence of Tit-for-Tat strategy in SPD game play, no doubt because of its strength as an empirical generalization, and because of Axelrod's impressive (1984) but not fully formalized demonstration of its competitive advantages.

Fairy tales in the humanities and the social sciences

Going beyond its primary reference to the fanciful tales of children with their “happily ever after” endings and of lovers whose “fairy tales” can come true, we must realize that “fairy tales” can, as justifications, also help deprive or kill people.