The Prisoner's Dilemma Explained in One Minute

If you've never heard about game theory before or have but are not all that confident you've fully understood the concept, this prisoner's dilemma video is definitely worth watching.

Simply put, the prisoner's dilemma analyzes a situation in which two rational actors (the prisoners) are put in a situation in which the outcome depends not only on their actions but on the actions of the other party as well.

Please like, comment and subscribe if you've enjoyed the video.

Oh and I've also started playing around with Patreon, my link is:

Interested in reading a good book?

My first book, Wealth Management 2.0 (through which I do my best to help people manage their wealth properly, whether we're talking about someone who has a huge amount of money at his disposal or someone who is still living paycheck to paycheck), can be bought using the links below:

My second book, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller The Age of Anomaly (through which I help people prepare for financial calamities and become more financially resilient in general), can be bought using the links below.

Last but not least, if you'd like to follow me on social media, use one of the links below:

[OneMinuteEconomics]

GiganticWebsites.com is a project through which I make it possible for people to build truly gigantic websites (thousands of articles each!) at ridiculously low prices. If you have a great domain you want to turn into an amazing website or an existing site you'd like to upgrade/scale, visit our website or check out the One Minute Economics presentation video below:


Please note that this comment is not an ad for a third-party service provider. GiganticWebsites.com is my baby 100% and I will personally be involved in each and every project so as to ensure the website turns out great :)

[jmcknight]

From my understanding, people in the real world are very rarely in prisoner's dilemma situations. Much more often, they find themselves in a modified, iterative version. This may explain why they tend to cooperate more.

[David-xbkg]

The real question is why does the police have a flintlock pistol?

[DRAWKCABLLA]

every smart person knows to not say anything to the pigs.

[jarbincks]

this is the most comprehensive and straight-to-the point way I've seen the prisoners dilemma explained. Thank you!

[anirudhganesh]

I was reading a paper and this one explained it much better than that research. Thanks a lot. Nice pun at the end XD "Take it with a grain of salt!"

[squalewally]

Alice broke out of jail after 2 days. She won

[martybyrd]

It's interesting that you set it up so that if they both testify, it's not the worst collective outcome (6 yrs). I thought part of the idea with the Prisoner's Dilemma was to show that when they both don't cooperate it's worse collectively than when just one of them doesn't testify. Yours is set up so the worst collective outcome is when just one of them testifies. So I'm curious then why you didn't make it for example (5, 5) when they both testify?

[junichiroyamashita]

This reminds of Virtue's Last Reward

[jarlnieminen]

The real question is why is a criminals testimony enough to get an extended sentence.

[SynthApprentice]

And this is why the US and Russia both spent so much money on military expenses that were never actually used against each other.

[simonnash]

This game theory ignores what happens once the person who stays silent and gets dobbed on gets out of jail and meets up with the dobber….

[bencochrane]

The key to the prisoner dilemma is calculable outcomes. You don't get that in real life, which is why poker, with some relatively straight forward maths you can crunch, is relaxing.

[torokun]

What are some real life examples within organizations such as companies?

[NWAWskeptic]

Would you consider the entertainment industry's current and upcoming situation with their digital IPs and desires to exclusively offer their content via their own digital platforms an example of this dilemma? In reality all the studios and such would benefit far more by having their content available across a wide range of providers, but only if the other studios offer THEIR content to them in return. So really it is inevitable that each studio will refuse to offer theirs as it would be a huge risk.

[MaryJaneandth]

why does whether they did the other crime not factor in

[Larry]

This is some top-notch content. I read a book with a similar topic, and it was absolutely incredible. "Game Theory and the Pursuit of Algorithmic Fairness" by Jack Frostwell

[Or_]

Learnt this poring through jurisprudence textbooks some 11 years ago

[memerboi.]

tit for tat: hey you cheated
joss: no u
tit for tat: no u
joss: no u
tit for tat: no u
(game ends)
joss gets victory

[siblej]

Alice would get a more lenient sentence.