OK! I have been confronted with a conundrum. Last week I played the prisoner's dilemma in the confirmation class. I had each student pair up with another and tried to make sure I did not put close friends together. I asked what choice the would make and what they thought their partner would make. Every single one chose the option to remain silent, take a lesser sentence and not betray their partner so that they would be able to go free. That result contradicts the classical expected results for the prisoner's dilemma. All the text books say that given the choice people would betray their partners for the chance to be set free. Are the text books wrong?

By the way if you are not familiar with the prisoner's dilemma here is a link to an explanation of the game

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma

So my conundrum is . . . why would these young adults all choose to remain silent and got to jail on a lesser charge instead of trying to go free at the expense of their friend? Maybe they are becoming cohesive? But is it trust or just peer pressure? Anyone have any thoughts?


I'm still pondering it

Later!!

I found an interesting word that might be a good concept to study cohesion. Especially when modeling cohesion of a Chinese combat units. The word is "Guainxi"

Guanxi is a Chinese term, generally translated as "networks" or "connections," that is increasing discussed in Western business circles and among academics studying such aspects of community as affective networks and social capital. Although guanxi is often characterized as uniquely Chinese, similar relationships occur in other nations, especially in East Asia.

here is a link to an explanation of the word

http://guanxi.pbwiki.com/


regs


WEW

On my website "On Cohesion Simulation" I have placed a symbol. This symbol I decided should be the representative symbol of cohesion simulations. Why?
Well because, every conceptual idea should have a symbol to represent the nuances of the concept. The symbol starts with a hexagon. This is to represent the connection to traditional war games, where simulations were born. Inside the hexagon is a connected graph. This is the basis of a graphical depiction of the relationships among the members of a group. The numbered circles represent the individuals and the lines connecting them represent the trust ties among them.

So what do you think?


By the way the latest on the confirmation class is that we let them convince us(the instructors) why we should cancel the class held on Superbowl night. They seemed to come together and presented some well though out and compelling reasons. The ideas, of course ( sorry to sound cynical, but. . .), were written by only one student and were passed out , but at least the all agreed that they would present the ideas as a group. We will see if there is any vestige of that unity on the upcoming class.

until the next one!!