Brief Definition
The prisoner’s dilemma (PD) is a two-player game where there is a conflict between individual and group interests. Overall, both players do better if they both cooperate, yet each individual player does better if they defect. However, if both players defect, then they do worse than if they both cooperate, hence the dilemma. This deceptively simple game has been used extensively to explore the conditions under which cooperation can evolve.
Introduction
The widespread evidence for cooperation in the natural world is often seen as an evolutionary puzzle. This is because, all else being equal, it is fitness-enhancing to reap the rewards of others’ cooperation without paying any of the costs. In a group of cooperators who freely help anyone else, selfish strategies possess increased fitness relative to cooperative strategies, and consequently spread through the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Alvard, M. S., & Nolin, D. A. (2002). Rousseau’s whale hunt? Current Anthropology, 43(4), 533–559. https://doi.org/10.1086/341653.
Axelrod, R. (1984). The evolution of cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
Barclay, P. (2013). Strategies for cooperation in biological markets, especially for humans. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(3), 164–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.02.002.
Camerer, C. F. (2003). Behavioral game theory: Experiments in strategic interaction. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Clutton-Brock, T. (2009). Cooperation between non-kin in animal societies. Nature, 462(7269), 51–57. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08366.
Doebeli, M., & Hauert, C. (2005). Models of cooperation based on the prisoner’s dilemma and the snowdrift game. Ecology Letters, 8(7), 748–766. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00773.x.
Frank, R. H., Gilovich, T., & Regan, D. T. (1993). The evolution of one-shot cooperation: An experiment. Ethology and Sociobiology, 14(4), 247–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(93)90020-I.
Gardner, A., West, S. A., & Wild, G. (2011). The genetical theory of kin selection. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 24(5), 1020–1043.
Gurven, M., Allen-Arave, W., Hill, K., & Hurtado, A. M. (2000). “Its a wonderful life”: Signaling generosity among the ache of Paraguay. Evolution and Human Behavior, 21, 263–282.
Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The Genetical evolution of social behavior. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 17–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(64)90039-6.
Hamilton, W. D. (1975). Innate social aptitudes of man: An approach from evolutionary genetics. In R. Fox (Ed.), Biosocial anthropology (pp. 133–153). London: Malaby Press.
Kümmerli, R., Colliard, C., Fiechter, N., Petitpierre, B., Russier, F., & Keller, L. (2007). Human cooperation in social dilemmas: Comparing the snowdrift game with the prisoner’s dilemma. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 274(1628), 2965–2970. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.0793.
Maynard Smith, J. (1982). Evolution and the theory of games. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Milinski, M. (2016). Reputation, a universal currency for human social interactions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 371, 20150100. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0100.
Nowak, M., & Sigmund, K. (1993). A strategy of win-stay, lose-shift that outperforms tit-for-tat in the prisoner’s dilemma game. Nature, 364, 56–58.
Nowak, M., & Sigmund, K. (1994). The alternating prisoner’s dilemma. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 168, 219. https://doi.org/10.1006/jtbi.1994.1101.
Nowak, M., & Sigmund, K. (1998). Evolution of indirect reciprocity by image scoring. Nature, 393(June), 573–577.
Peysakhovich, A., Nowak, M. A., & Rand, D. G. (2014). Humans display a “cooperative phenotype” that is domain general and temporally stable. Nature Communications, 5, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5939.
Rand, D. G., & Nowak, M. A. (2013). Human cooperation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17(8), 413–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.003.
Roberts, G. (2015). Partner choice drives the evolution of cooperation via indirect reciprocity. PLoS One, 10(6), e0129442. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129442.
Selten, R., & Stoecker, R. (1986). End behavior in sequences of finite prisoner’s dilemma supergames a learning theory approach. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 7(1), 47–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2681(86)90021-1.
Smith, E. A. (2010). Communication and collective action: Language and the evolution of human cooperation. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(4), 231–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.03.001.
Smith, D., Dyble, M., Thompson, J., Major, K., Page, A. E., Chaudhary, N., et al. (2016). Camp stability predicts patterns of hunter-gatherer cooperation. Royal Society Open Science, 3, 160131.
Smith, D., Schlaepfer, P., Major, K., Dyble, M., Page, A. E., Thompson, J., et al. (2017). Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling. Nature Communications, 8(1), 1853. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02036-8.
Smith, D., Dyble, M., Major, K., Page, A. E., Chaudhary, N., Salali, G. D., et al. (2018). A friend in need is a friend indeed: Need-based sharing, rather than cooperative assortment, predicts experimental resource transfers among Agta hunter-gatherers. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EVOLHUMBEHAV.2018.08.004.
Sober, E., & Wilson, D. S. (1998). Unto others: The evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sosis, R., Feldstein, S., & Hill, K. (1998). Bargaining theory and cooperative fishing participation on Ifaluk atoll. Human Nature, 9(2), 163–203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-998-1002-5.
Sylwester, K., & Roberts, G. (2013). Reputation-based partner choice is an effective alternative to indirect reciprocity in solving social dilemmas. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(3), 201–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2012.11.009.
Trivers, R. L. (1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 46(1), 35–57.
West, S. A., Griffin, A. S., & Gardner, A. (2007). Evolutionary explanations for cooperation. Current Biology, 17(16), 661–672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.06.004.
Winking, J., & Mizer, N. (2013). Natural-field dictator game shows no altruistic giving. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(4), 288–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2013.04.002.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Smith, D. (2019). Prisoner’s Dilemma and Cooperation. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3757-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3757-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Prisoner’s Dilemma and Cooperation- Published:
- 25 July 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3757-2
-
Original
Prisoner’s Dilemma and Cooperation- Published:
- 29 September 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3757-1