FROM ISSUE NUMBER 2 - WINTER 1966 GO TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

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“Prisoner’s Dilemma” is the name of a model situation constructed by game theorists in which it is supposed that each of two prisoners charged with participating in the same crime, who cannot know what the other will do, face a choice of two strategies: to confess or not. Resulting from these strategies are four possible “payoffs” for each prisoner: if A confesses and B does not, A will go free and be rewarded (which may be assigned a value of (+ 2) and B will get long imprisonment (– 2); if B confesses and A does not, A will get long imprisonment (– 2) while B will go free and be rewarded (+ 2).  If both confess, each will get short imprisonment (– 1); if neither confesses, each will be acquitted (+ 1).

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