The Prisoner's Dilemma

Two people who would both be better off cooperating each have a private reason to defect — and end up worse off together. Strategy's most famous trap.

Two suspects are questioned separately. Stay silent together and both get off lightly. Talk while the other stays silent and you walk free. Whatever the other does, talking pays better — so both talk, and both lose.

Nobody here is stupid or wicked. The payoffs themselves reward defection, so the bad ending follows from everyone being sensible.

Two colleagues who could share credit but each grab it; two shops that could hold prices but discount into a war. Change the situation, not the players.

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Game Theory

#01

The Basics

Why smart people betray each other

The Prisoner's Dilemma

Two people who would both be better off cooperating each have a private reason to defect — and end up worse off together. Strategy's most famous trap.

Nobody here is stupid or wicked. The payoffs themselves reward defection, so the bad ending follows from everyone being sensible.

Two colleagues who could share credit but each grab it; two shops that could hold prices but discount into a war. Change the situation, not the players.

Escape the trap

#01

Name the dilemma out loud

When both sides are drifting toward mutual defection, say what is happening: 'if we both play it safe, we both lose.' Making the structure visible is the first move out of it.

Change the payoffs, not the people

Add something that makes defection expensive or cooperation rewarding: a shared deadline, a public agreement, a small deposit each side forfeits by walking away.

What would make betraying me cost more than it pays?

Make it repeated

One-shot games invite defection. Turn a single transaction into an ongoing relationship — future rounds give both sides a reason to behave in this one.

When sensible people keep producing a senseless outcome, stop blaming the players and look at the game.

The Prisoner's Dilemma

Two people who would both be better off cooperating each have a private reason to defect — and end up worse off together. Strategy's most famous trap.

Nobody here is stupid or wicked. The payoffs themselves reward defection, so the bad ending follows from everyone being sensible.

Two colleagues who could share credit but each grab it; two shops that could hold prices but discount into a war. Change the situation, not the players.

The Prisoner's Dilemma

Two people who would both be better off cooperating each have a private reason to defect — and end up worse off together. Strategy's most famous trap.

Nobody here is stupid or wicked. The payoffs themselves reward defection, so the bad ending follows from everyone being sensible.

Two colleagues who could share credit but each grab it; two shops that could hold prices but discount into a war. Change the situation, not the players.