The evolution of focal points

Theories of focal points typically assume that games are accompanied by labelings or “frames” that relate the actions in the game to the environment in which the game is played. Attention then focuses on how players can exploit framing information to identify focal equilibria. This paper asks instead how evolutionary considerations determine which aspects of the environment are likely to be monitored by the players and hence appear as part of the framing information. Efficient monitoring turns out to be an unlikely outcome.