on Facebook
on Twitter
on YouTube
Document Information
An Empirical Description of the Prisoner's Dilemma Game
A discussion of recent experimental work with the prisoner's dilemma game, indicating low levels of cooperation and concluding that the Luce and Raiffa conjecture — that reasonable men will cooperate if the game is iterated — is unsubstantiated. This paper (1) presents the results and techniques used to obtain the higher levels of cooperation that will enable a case to be made for the Luce and Raiffa conjecture and (2) attempts to compare the results and to explain discrepancies. Differences in experimental technique appear to account for the contradictory results. The principal differences in technique are shown to be methodological, stemming from the dichotomous areas of interest between economics and psychology.
Support RAND Research — Buy This Product!
Paperback Cover Price: $15.00
Discounted Web Price: $13.50
Pages: 21
Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.
RAND makes an electronic version of this document available for free as a public service. If you find this information valuable, please consider purchasing a paper copy of the full document to help support RAND research.
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
This product is part of the RAND paper series. The paper was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1948 to 2003 that captured speeches, memorials, and derivative research, usually prepared on authors' own time and meant to be the scholarly or scientific contribution of individual authors to their professional fields. Papers were less formal than reports and did not require rigorous peer review.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
Top
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2009 RAND Corporation. Last Modified: September 15, 2009 