where Prisoner A is being held and says: “You know what? Your partner in the other room is

confessing. Your partner is going to get a light prison sentence of just one year, and because you’re

remaining silent, the judge is going to stick you with eight years in prison. Why don’t you get smart? If

you confess, too, we’ll cut your jail time down to five years, and your partner will get five years, also.”

Over in the next room, another police officer is giving exactly the same speech to Prisoner B. What the

police officers do not say is that if both prisoners remain silent, the evidence against them is not

especially strong, and the prisoners will end up with only two years in jail each.

The game theory situation facing the two prisoners is in Table 10.2. To understand the dilemma, first consider

the choices from Prisoner A’s point of view. If A believes that B will confess, then A should confess, too, so as to
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