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!!