Examples

Each person's outcomes depend on the joint effect of what the two persons do. Each one is concerned not about their own action or the partner's action, but only about the combination of their two actions. For example, when two friends agree to meet for dinner, the particular restaurant each goes to is less important than that they both go to the same place. When two cars approach each other on a two-lane road, both drivers strongly prefer that both keep to their respective sides, either to the left (as in England) or to the right (as in the United States). Success in attempting to move a heavy piece of furniture without dragging it over the floor requires that one person lift one end and the other person, the other end. When two boys want to practice their baseball skills, it is necessary for one to pitch and the other to bat; other combinations, both pitching or both batting are, to say the least, unsatisfactory.

Conceptual Description

In each of the above examples, both persons gain benefits and/or avoid harm from the same combinations of behavior. As a consequence, they desire that their behaviors be “coordinated” in some particular way. In the simplest case, each person is indifferent as among the several mutually preferred combinations, so they have a common interest in doing one – any one – of those combinations.