Chapters 6 and 7 go deeper into the ideas of trust and cooperation. When reading the chapters, everything he was saying was extremely logical in the sense that if we could trust and cooperate more, a lot of dilemmas and problems can be avoided. The part I like about him though, is that he is a realist and recognizes that the chances of perfect trust around the world is impossible. Still, I couldn’t help but think of ways in which the strategies mentioned in the book are employed in life and if they are not, how they can be applied. For example, when I was reading the Pavlov approach to cooperation, it reminded me of a time where I was playing gun game in Call of Duty with a group of friends (for those who do not know, gun game is a game mode where the players all start out with the same gun. The way you win is by killing someone with that gun, then you will get a new gun and on on till you get to the last gun and beat kill someone with that.). Early in the game, everything was going well because we had come to a consensus no stabbing was allowed (in gun game, it sets you back a gun), this was working fine until someone “accidentally” stabbed a friend, setting him back a level. In spite of the other player, he stabbed him back, but since he stabbed, someone else started stabbing, and so on and so forth. The game was lasting way to long until everyone finally said enough was enough and returned to the consensus of no stabbing. The idea that since everyone was now, as put in the book, defecting, the players then re-offered up cooperation in order to end the cycle and enjoy the game.

Going back to RPS, I also enjoyed the story he shared about the two characters, Mrs.B and Mrs.D. Not only do I believe everyone in there life has experienced a Mrs.B person or Mrs.D person, but also that those two approaches are best used in hand and hand. To offer someone forgiveness is a great option, for the first offense, but if it keeps happening again and again, that is when something must be done. He talks about this himself as well, where there lie dangers if someone employs solely one strategy (Like how a rocket “accidentally” went off in his nannies room after she had scolded him and turned him into his dad for a putting a frog into her bed.). If one only forgives, then the chances that someone will constantly take advantage of you will rise. If you offer solely punishment and the receiver deems it unfair, then a cycle of tit for tat of negative responses will begin. So his implementation of the idea of offering cooperation first, respond if cheated, but then do not be afraid to re-offer cooperation in order to save all participants in continuos negative responses.