Question

Develop a prisoner’s dilemma for 2 players. Show your game.

*Show and explain the best strategy for player 1

*Show and explain the best strategy for player 2

*Explain the trends you notice with your game. What do you notice? Were you

surprised by the results?

Answer 1

Prisoner's Dilemma

Prisoner's dilemma is a two-person strategy game. It is usually explained as part of game theory. It is based on the Nash equilibrium. From a psychological perspective, it shows how two people, even though their best interests lie ahead, one of the either betrays the other to save oneself. The Game: Neither communicates with the other If both the players give a dollar each, they get 10 each. If either gives a dollar, the one that gives loses it and the one that doesn't give gets 10 If neither give a dollar, neither gets anything - but lose an opportunity to make 9X profit The problem with the game is that they both may choose to not give which leads them to lose nothing. In general case, the prisoner's dilemma involves both the parties involved being in a tight spot and that's what makes it such a nice way of studying criminal psychology. Coming to the game at hand,

Best Strategy for Players

Player 1 does not give a dollar: The player gains nothing (or) The player earns 10

Player 1 gives a dollar: The player loses 1 (or) The player earns 10

Assuming that it is in the best interests if both players choose to give 1 each, they stand the chance to make a 9X profit. And assuming they want to play it safe, neither gives anything and stands to lose nothing.

The best strategy for both players to do is to give one dollar each.

Trends

It was noticed that humans in general, do not trust each other much! The game was played between two unrelated people who have no idea about each other, and the offer was made by a stranger (me). In spite of belonging to the same peer group, it did surprise me that both the volunteers chose to not give me a dollar! They both could have made 9 dollars in profit!

Another test set revealed that people would rather not give but hope that the other person gives. This showed that we are indeed shady in thinking.

Very little percentage of players were found, where both parties were willing to give with trust that the other person too would give, in hope of making 9 times the profit.

So, in the current scenario, giving nothing seems to be the best strategy - Even if I don't make a profit, am happy with making no loss!