How To Evade The Prisoner’s Dilemma?

Find out the key lessons about trust and forgiveness taught by this famous decision-making game

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Ever heard of “The Bank Job”?

If you live in the country of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, you might have watched this TV show where participants compete for prize money through a series of games.

The interesting part is the final as the two remaining contestants face each other for a final game called “Cash or Trash”. Each of them has to secretly choose between a suitcase full of “Cash” or a suitcase full of “Trash” and give it to the other participant.

• If both choose “Cash”, they split the jackpot evenly.
• If one chooses “Cash”, but the other chooses “Trash”, the latter keeps the whole prize money for him or herself.
• Finally, if both choose “Trash”, they both go home empty-handed.

Source: Lison Mage

Indeed, this is an adaptation of the famous Prisoner’s Dilemma, a cornerstone example of the decision-making model called game theory.

If the Prisoner’s Dilemma game is played in a vacuum, namely there is no opportunity for retribution or risk of social status loss…