Prisoner's Dilemma
The canonical case where individually rational defection produces a worse outcome for both than mutual cooperation would. Repeated play changes everything: reciprocity strategies win tournaments, and reputation becomes the mechanism that makes cooperation rational. Industries with few players and long memories behave very differently from those without.
7 books · 2 people behind it · 4 resources
Start here
- Prisoner's DilemmaWilliam Poundstone, 1992
- Thinking StrategicallyAvinash K. Dixit, Barry J. Nalebuff, 1991
- The Evolution of CooperationRobert Axelrod, 1984
The people behind it 2
Each person holds a book in this entry or names it in their own tags.
Journalists 2
Resources 4
- Tit for Tat and CooperationShane Parrish · essay · Axelrod's winning strategy in the repeated dilemma.
- Coordination ProblemsShane Parrish · essay · Why rational individuals reach collectively bad outcomes.
- Mutually Assured DestructionShane Parrish · essay · Equilibrium held by the cost of defecting.
- Game TheoryShane Parrish · essay · Payoffs when your outcome depends on other players.
Books 7
Matt Ridley · 1996 · Cooperation as an evolved strategy; reciprocity and the prisoner's dilemma
T3 Nonzero
Robert Wright · 2000 · History read as an expanding series of non-zero-sum games