What is The Prisoner's Dilemma?

Barstool Sports

7/2/2025

Dana B | Dana Learns

Transcript

00:00Hi Dana. Let's go. Do you ever feel like you're a prisoner in your own mind? Uh-oh. I think you're

00:06a pretty rational guy. Yeah. I think that sometimes you know if you're a prisoner

00:13if you're a rational person it can present dilemmas. We're doing dilemmas? Have you ever

00:22heard of the prisoner's dilemma? Heavens no. Go ahead what do you think the prisoner's dilemma is?

00:27If you're stuck in prison and if you want to escape and get out forever or like do you risk that

00:39or do you just stay and take your your beatings? You know you're you're weirdly on the hunt but

00:46let me give you the story. All right. You've got two bad guys two prisoners. Both have been accused

00:54of a crime. The cops separate them to interrogate them individually. Yeah. Let's say that you and

01:04I are the two prisoners. All right. Okay. Yeah. They question you first. There's a couple of

01:08outcomes. If you don't rat on me and I don't rat on you then we will both get a small sentence. Yes.

01:20Because the cops don't have enough evidence to pin the big crime on either one of us. Snitches get

01:28stitches. But they have enough to get a little bit on us. Yeah. If we both remain locked. Yes. Stay

01:35solid. Mm-hmm. Then we will both get just a little bit of prison time. A little bit of pressure. I'm

01:42cracked. Yes. I'm cracking. If you rat on me and I stay silent I will get a lot of prison

01:53time. Big one. Big one. And you'll get to go free. Zero. Another outcome. You remain silent

01:58but I rat on you. In which case we flip it. Vice versa. And then the final outcome is that

02:04we both rat on each other. And we both get fucked? We both get a good amount but it would be less

02:09than if. Than the max. The problem here is that the ideal thing is for both of us to

02:15remain silent. Yep. But in every scenario the rational thing to do for each of us individually

02:24is to rat on the other person. Yeah. You're thinking about remaining silent. Okay. Because

02:30you're like well I know that if I remain silent and he remains silent he's only going to get

02:34two years. But then you start thinking but if I remain silent and he rats on me I'm going to get

02:39a lot of time. Yeah. So to protect against that I need to rat on him. Well do we get to do we get to

02:47game plan this or are we just thrown into a room? No. We don't get to talk to each other. Oh god. Oh shit.

02:53Yeah I'm probably ratting on you. You're ratting on me. I'm ratting on you. Are you ratting on me?

02:58Absolutely. Yeah. Alright. Cool. And it has nothing to do with our friendship. Alright. Well then if we're

03:02throwing that out to the window I yeah I'm cracking under pressure and ratting on you. In every scenario

03:07we are ratting on each other. Yeah. I've never considered this situation before. It could come up.

03:13What do you mean you were doing a crime together? Well you know you or some friend of yours you guys

03:18get up to no good. We used to like jump into fences but that was the worst we'd ever do. But you're

03:23destroying the neighborhood. No no no. We'd mostly do like our own fences. And then your parents would

03:28be upset with you? Ah they'd be like why'd you jump into the fence last night? Ah we're buzzing. Can you

03:33imagine that you're a father someday and you find out that those beautiful bushes that you planted

03:39now are absolutely destroyed? I think about it. Your son and his moron friends were fucking shit up. Ever

03:48jump in a bush? You should jump in a bush sometime. I don't know that I've jumped in a bush. Just

03:53a nice big bush you fucking cannonball in there when you're a little buckled. I've always wondered

03:58if I were being chased by a knife wielding maniac. Yeah. In my own home. Yeah. And I was out on my

04:05window ledge and he was coming in and I knew I only had one way. Boom. I'd aim for a bush. Or like

04:11you jump into a tree. You can just jump into a tree. You can jump into trees. Like a uh what do they call it? The bark.

04:17The stump. Not the stump. What's the what's it called? The tree.

04:25What's that thing called? Now I can't now I can't remember. I think it's just you have infected me

04:31with your stupidity. The root. The base. The base of the tree. Yeah. Yeah we jump into the base of the

04:37tree. Mm-hmm. Dry sometimes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This prisoner's dilemma situation presents this paradox. And by

04:45the way this can apply to economics. It can apply to businesses. Where even though the ideal outcome

04:54can be for cooperation to happen. The rational thing to do is to act in one's self-interest. Yeah. And so

05:02that leads to everyone acting in their self-interest which is the non-ideal outcome for everyone

05:11individually. It's also the paradox is snitches get stitches. Right. So. Some people are so like

05:18you know stick to their guns I'm not gonna snitch on my boy but they might not know that their boy

05:22snitching on them. And their boy snitches on them and then they end up in prison but are they getting

05:27stitches because they didn't snitch. They're getting stitches yes. Why? Because they're going to jail.

05:34And automatically you get stitches in jail? I don't know. Actually no they're not getting stitches

05:39because they're because once the word gets out everyone's like oh he didn't snitch. He was solid.

05:43He was solid. And then they'll once then people get outside. They'll be like respect. They're and

05:48they're gonna go find the snitch. Yes. And give him stitches. I'd consider not snitching. I can see that in

05:53your life very few people have come after you. I have been arrested before. What was that for?

05:58I was 18. I was at UMass Amherst and I snuck it was 4 a.m. I snuck into the football stadium by myself.

06:06I sat down at the 50 yard line just drank beers and then I ripped down this flag that said UMass

06:12Athletics because I'm like my boy's gonna love this. And those cop lights come on and they're like

06:16what are you doing buddy? I said I'm leaving the tailgate. He's like it's 4 36. You're not leaving the

06:22tailgate. And I was like ah you're right. Good. All right. Well that's the prisoner's dilemma.

06:27Thank you for informing me. Good luck. Appreciate it Franny.

What is The Prisoner's Dilemma?

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