Hacker CinemaSplit or Steal
Split or Steal
Film · short · 7 min
Directed by jack bailey
Flashing lights, nervous contestants and a host with a grin plastered on his face. It’s the final part of the nation’s favourite gameshow. Kelly and Jonathan are the contestants in the hot-seat.
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3 comments on Hacker News
This is almost accurate. You can slightly increase your chances if you say "I will defect, but will take care of your family and give you half my income forever. If you also defect, we will both go to prison and you will be worse off", then don't actually defect - which means you both cooperate! It won't always work, but it did work flawlessly in a show called "Split or Steal", which basically made the prisoner's dilemma a TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8
> I like to think that peoples' honor is not contingent on their estimation of the honor of their colleagues.
You might want to rethink that assumption, because overwhelming evidence suggests that people's honour is contingent of their estimation of the honour of their peers. See the Golden Balls TV show, where the two remaining participants at the end are asked to "split or steal". Turned out people are more likely to steal if they think the other will steal as well. Also, people don't like to get swindled. If they expect swindling, its' only natural that they resist it however they can.
Don't get me wrong, we need honour, if only so we can share this Earth together. There are other ways to fight dishonour than to be dishonourable yourself, and there are advantages to honour (such as the reputation of being honourable). It's just that evidence is not as rainbows and unicorns as we'd like.
This says we can't use game theory to analyze this situation, but the only argument given in support is that humans aren't rational. "Irrational" (or otherwise emotional) strategies are by no means outside of the analysis of game theory. It's well known that by "irrationally" eliminating one of your choices, you can push your opponent into different options.
For example, take this infamous episode of split or steal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8
One side makes a choice to go with perhaps the most "irrational" choice. But if you think about it for a bit, it's obvious that they end up guaranteeing the better choice for both parties by being less greedy than they might be.
Anyone interested in the topic of rationality as it pertains to game theory might also like reading this: http://www.dklevine.com/archive/refs4375.pdf