Moderately conservative Moderate Conservative
The payoffs reflect these two forces: a preference to be elected with a plat- form closer to one’s ideal, but also a desire to be elected. Note that a candidate’s payoff is higher when his or her rival is more extreme, as this makes it easier to get elected. For example, if the Democratic candidate supports a moderately liberal platform, then his payoff rises from 3 to 5 to 9 as the Republican can- didate’s platform becomes progressively more conservative. Note also that as one goes from (moderate, moderate) to (moderately liberal, moderately conserva- tive) to (liberal, conservative), each candidate’s payoff rises, since, for all three strategy pairs, the candidate has an equal chance of winning (the candidates are presumed equally distant from what moderate voters want) and prefers to be elected with a platform closer to his or her own ideology.