This reading serves as an extremely interesting overview of the six main variations of the prisoner’s dilemma and Game Theory. Currently, I am taking Rational Choice and Political Theory for PPEL, where we reviewed several of the topics discussed in this chapter literally today in class, when we were introduced to theories of decisions in which the decisions of others impact the choice options. In this reading, one of the forms of dilemmas that particularly interested me was the Battle of the Sexes dilemma. This is the situation that I related to the most, as there are often times that I collaborate with others seemingly against my own preferences due to the worse alternative of doing things alone. The best example of this I can think of is eating meals with friends, to which case I often eat at inconvenient times or unnecessarily spend money food because doing so with friends is better than eating when and what I prefer by myself. I am certain my fellow students can relate to this scenario.
I was also particularly interested in this reading’s discussion of how to break many of the discussed dilemmas, by adding a third option that falls outside of the cheat-cooperate matrix. The author here gives the example of a kindergarten teacher offering ice cream to students who help clean up toys contrary to their defecting fellow students. This idea may have profound implications for issues of international affairs, specifically when it comes to the tragedy of the commons. If international organizations can create incentives of the type discussed, resource depletion could be slowed. For example, if the UN somehow rewarded countries that do not overuse fisheries in international waters, there would be less of an incentive to overfish out of fears of all countries doing the same. By making all dilemmas more like the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, in which there is no dominant strategy, many problems could be solved.
I think you gave really good examples that helped me further understand the concepts in the reading. I can also relate to your food example, I often will go to dhall at times I am not that hungry with my friends to prevent the issue of not having anyone to go with later. I never would have thought there was a term to describe this phenomenon, but in this context, it makes much more sense.
I was interested to see that you also said you were learning these concepts in a PPEL class because I am currently learning some in my International Relations class as well. I think that this is a testament to how widely applicable these concepts are. You example about eating with friends is all too relatable. I always find myself eating at my “prime” times in order to hav company. These was a good example for me to understand why people give up their Nash equilibrium.
I think there are so many instances on college campuses where people fall into the battle of the sexes dilemma and dhall is a really good example. Most people prefer to do things with friends when it is inconvenient to them rather than do something alone and I feel like this comes from a social pressure on campus not be doing things alone. I think we are definitely motivated by the fact that everyone else does stuff like eating with their friends and we feel like it would be wrong to do that thing on our own. I also found the rock, paper, scissors idea really interesting and realized how many problems could be solved by adding that third element. It made me want to practice my rock, paper, scissors skills because until now I had always thought that there was kind of a dominant strategy.
I agree, I was very interested in the rock paper scissors idea of adding a third element, and I had a similar thought about how so many of the worlds problems could be solved by adding in an option that makes people scared to do the cheating option. I think that this could be implemented in a lot of the overuse of social welfare in the US.