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(1994) Synthese 99 (2).

Accounting for the "tragedy" in the prisoner's dilemma

John J. Tilley

pp. 251-276

The Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) exhibits a ‘tragedy’ in this sense: if the players are fully informed and rational, they are condemned to a jointly dispreferred outcome. In this essay I address the following question: What feature of the PD's payoff structure is necessary and sufficient to produce the tragedy? In answering it I use the notion of a “trembling-hand equilibrium”. In the final section I discuss an implication of my argument, an implication which bears on the persistence of the problem posed by the PD.

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/BF01064431

Full citation:

Tilley, J. J. (1994). Accounting for the "tragedy" in the prisoner's dilemma. Synthese 99 (2), pp. 251-276.

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