Richard Malena
Jul 24, 2017 · 1 min read

I’d have to disagree here. One of the reasons to build coalitions in general is to know exactly what the other players will do and avoid social situations like the Prisoner’s Dilemma. If we are bound by obligation, then neither of us will snitch, and this is a known, reliable outcome. There is no ambiguity between players in the game.

Mike’s statement (as I read it) is not meant to suggest that the analysis leads to an unknown outcome. You rightly point out that it does not. Both players snitching is the equilibrium outcome.

However, the ambiguity in this article’s context has to do with a coalition being broken up, so that players are suddenly in the position where they can no longer rely on each other’s actions. That is the case that takes this coalition from the known, reliable, cooperative outcome and spirals them into the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

    Richard Malena

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