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Management Science Vol. 32 No. 1 1986

Subjective Probability and the Prisoner's Dilemma

John G. Wilson

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106

Abstract

The paradox involved in sequences of Prisoner's Dilemma games is due to the fact that game theoretic definitions of optimality rarely coincide with any natural meaning of the word. Decision makers should incorporate their beliefs and experience into any mathematical analysis of the games. Once this has been done, via subjective probabilities, use of the cooperative move in iterated Prisoner's Dilemma games can often be justified. The paper provides a simple algorithm for determining an optimal strategy, once the decision maker's subjective probabilities have been specified.

DOI
10.1287/mnsc.32.1.45
Volume
32
Issue
1
Pages
45-55
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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