I’ve seen lots of attempts at explaining “The Prisoners Dilemma.”
I think this one is pretty good. Do you have other suggestions?
Posted by Larry Ferlazzo | Mar 31, 2016 | TOK, video | 1 |
I’ve seen lots of attempts at explaining “The Prisoners Dilemma.”
I think this one is pretty good. Do you have other suggestions?
Using this video may do more harm than good because it propagates flawed assumptions. Here is a much better analysis: https://bosker.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/the-prisoners-dilemma/
Before analyzing the prisoner’s dilemma too closely, I recommend putting it in context of game theory. The wikipedia entry is very helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_game_theory
The explanations provided in the video you link seem to assume that economists have learned something important (if “paradoxical”) about human behavior using the prisoner’s dilemma and that we, in turn, can now learn from them the explanation for cooperative behavior. A better assumption is that human social behavior evolved, and therefore had to benefit the individuals so inclined. The results of the prisoner’s dilemma game, in which the payoff favors non-cooperative behavior, challenged game theorists to tinker with the rules of the game until it provided a better model of past social environments.