# Metadata Source URL:: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma Topics:: #game-theory --- # Prisoner's dilemma - Wikipedia ## Highlights > [!quote]+ Updated on 241122_102822 > > The Prisoner's Dilemma is an example of a game analyzed in game theory[citation needed]. It is also a thought experiment that challenges two completely rational agents to a dilemma: cooperate with their partner for mutual reward, or betray their partner ("defect") for individual reward. > >This dilemma was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher while working at RAND in 1950[citation needed]. Albert W. Tucker appropriated the game and formalized it by structuring the rewards in terms of prison sentences and named it "prisoner's dilemma".[1] William Poundstone in his 1993 book Prisoner's Dilemma writes the following version:Two members of a criminal gang are arrested and imprisoned. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of speaking to or exchanging messages with the other. The police admit they don't have enough evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge. They plan to sentence both to a year in prison on a lesser charge. Simultaneously, the police offer each prisoner a Faustian bargain.The possible outcomes are: >A: If A and B each betray the other, each of them serves 5 years in prison >B: If A betrays B but B remains silent, A will be set free and B will serve 10 years in prison >C: If A remains silent but B betrays A, A will serve 10 years in prison and B will be set free >D: If A and B both remain silent, both of them will serve 2 years in prison (on the lesser charge).