On Jul 22, 2013, at 6:25 PM, Jim Devine wrote:
I tell my students that if prisoners have a "culture of resistance" in
opposition to "the Man," then the Prisoner's Dilemma leads to
cooperation between the inmates (rather than individualistic
defection). Here's an experiment that agrees.
http://au.businessinsider.com/prisoners-dilemma-in-real-life-2013-7
If an *individual* prisoner has a "culture of resistance" he will
under no circumstances *believe* anything the cops tell him. Then
there is and can be no "dilemma" and he will refuse to answer any
questions (except, perhaps, under torture) until he can lawyer up.
That is why the theory fails. The issue of "cooperation" is a pure
red herring--the situation prescribed by the theory is one in which
the prisoners are isolated from each other (as is universally the case
in the real world) so that any cooperation among them is rigorously
excluded.
Shane Mage
"L'après-vie, c'est une auberge espagnole. L'on n'y trouve que ce
qu'on a apporté."
Bardo Thodol
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