Prisoner's Dilemma, one shot and iterated

DIEGO RÍOS; ELEONORA CRESTO

International Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences - Second Edition

Elsevier

Año: 2015; p. 930 - 937

The Prisoner´s Dilemma is a game whose Nash equilibrium is not Pareto efficient. The sheer perversity of the interaction involved in the Prisoner´s Dilemma has bewildered game-theorists and social scientists alike. Despite the fact that players could be better off by jointly cooperating, they have individually a dominant strategy for defection that carries out a sub-optimal outcome for everyone. This entry explores and assesses this result, contrasting one-shot and repeated interactions.