Prisoner’s dilemma - Risk Article

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Trusting is a risky strategy. Generally one side doesn’t survive. How can trust survive?

Single round prisoner’s dilemma says it can’t. The prisoner’s dilemma assumes a zero sum outcome where one guy dies (or goes away for ten years – is any rate out of the game). A prisoner’s dilemma in the narrow sense is necessarily “brutish”. We are doomed to brutish existence. but this is not true in commerce: Let’s craft a wealthy equivalent of the prisoner’s dilemma that takes this into account: the eBayer’s dilemma. Here the worst that can happen on defection is you pay for but never get your second-hand Louboutins (or vice versa) – losing to a defector is not generally fatal. The eBayer’s dilemma is usually “iterative”. as we know, the game theory implications of an iterated prisoner’s dilemma are more benign.

See also

• Prisoner’s dilemma