Two prisoners, alleged to be conspirators in a crime, are put into separate room

Question

Two prisoners, alleged to be conspirators in a crime, are put into separate rooms. A police officer goes into each room and makes a little speech: “Now here is the situation. If your partner confesses and you remain silent, you’ll get 5 years in prison. But if your partner confesses and you confess also, you’ll only get 3 years in prison. On the other hand, perhaps your partner remains silent. If you’re quiet also we can only send you to prison for 1 year. But if your partner remains silent and you confess, we’ll let you out in 3 months. So if your partner confesses, you’re better off confessing, and if your partner doesn’t confess, you’re better off confessing. Why not confess?” The deal is offered separately to each prisoner.

1. Construct the payoff matrix-

2. What is the dominant strategy?

3. Make a personal decision based on Game Theory or other possible Dominant Strategies that you might choose given the rewards / risks. Or if the Dominant Strategy is number 2 is satisfactory for you—so state.

Explanation / Answer

Dominant Strategy is for both to confess as the deal is being offered to them seperately and none of them knows the decision making of other. Hence both will confess.

Personal decision based on Game Theory is that the choice number 2 is the Dominant Strategy.

Note the numbers in the matrix are the number of years to be spend in prison under each situation. Number of months have been converted into years 3 / 12 = 0.25 years.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse T
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.