The prisoner’s dilemma: how would you act in this situation?

The prisoner's dilemma: would you be capable of betraying your partner to get out of prison?

When making a decision that, apart from having repercussions for our own well-being, may affect others, we may find ourselves faced with a social dilemma in which the benefits of the decision and the costs to ourselves and others will come into play.

Although at first it may seem that our own self-interest will always prevail, this is not the case, because in that case we would be in a social dilemma in which the benefits of the decision and the costs to ourselves and others will come into play. we would then find ourselves in a state of social chaos..

The prisoner's dilemma

The so-called "prisoner's dilemma" has been widely used in psychology studies where a situation of conflict of interests between two people is shown. Participants were presented with a fictitious situation in which they should imagine that they are a thief who has been arrested, together with his partner, by the police. Both are questioned separately by a lawyer, who proposes the following dilemma to them:

• If they both remain silent, i.e. cooperate, they will only have to pay a small fine.

• If the two thieves rat on each other, i.e. betray each other, they will both go to jail for two years.

• If one betrays and the other remains silent, the betrayer will be released but the betrayed will go to jail for 5 years.

Obviously, if we betray our partner, we will go free and it would be the most suitable option for our own welfare. If we both betray each other, we would end up in jail.. So the best option would be to cooperate, where we would both get the same benefit and the same cost, but therein lies the dilemma: can we trust our partner not to rat on us? So, how do we behave?

Possible reactions to this dilemma

Well, several experimental laboratory and field studies have extracted that we have four options:

• Being individualisticWe seek to maximize our personal benefit, regardless of how this may influence others (for better or worse).

• Opt for altruismthe polar opposite of the above, where we only care about the benefit of others.

• Showing ourselves to be competitive trying to be better than others despite the personal costs of the process.

• CooperateWe would seek to make our decision equally beneficial for us and for others.

Competitiveness and cooperation, the most commonly used options.

In other dilemma games more than one choice is offered, in these cases the subjects usually start by cooperating with each other and, in the next choice, they will do the same as their partner has done. In other words, they are true to the saying "today for you, tomorrow for me". Well then, the conclusions of the studies reveal that the options most used by the majority are competitiveness and cooperation, with differences between genders (there are differences between genders).There are differences between genders (women being more cooperative than men) and cultures (living in an individualistic or collective society).

However, other important factors must be taken into account, such as the context in which the dilemma occurs, being very important the type of relationship that unites us with the other people involved. It is not the same if they are complete strangers or if they have some bond of affection with us.

Recommendations for dealing with the social dilemma

To conclude, I propose a series of recommendations to face a social dilemma in the face of which we do not know how to act dilemma in which we do not know how to act:

• Let's be empathetic and focus not only on our benefit but also on the benefit of others.

• Cooperation enhances our reputation within our group and can also help to forge bonds of affection. Let's believe that having good social relationships has an impact on our sense of personal well-being.

• Communicate. Sometimes it is advisable to try to reach an agreement with the other people involved. Evolution has "given" us the faculty of language, let's use it.

• Let's make a personal feedbackThinking about the pros and cons of our actions, we can write them down if necessary and mentally imagine the consequences for others and for ourselves.