Question

A game involving two players with two possible strategies is a prisoner's dilemma if each player has a dominant strategy and:

Select one:

a. neither player plays their dominant strategy.

b. each player's payoff is higher when both play their dominated strategy than when both play their dominant strategy.

c. each player's payoff is lower when both play their dominant strategy than when both play their dominated strategy.

d. there is a Nash equilibrium that yields the highest payoff for both players.

Answer 1

In a Prisoner's Dilemma game, if both players have dominant strategy then they generally choose their respective dominant strategy.

This combination turns out to be the Nash equilibrium of such game.

However, observation of Prisoner's Dilemma game shows that if both players have chosen the dominated strategies then their respective pay-off would be higher.

This is because in Prisoner's Dilemma game, cooperation yields higher pay-off then the independent decision making.

So,

A game involving two players with two possible strategies is a prisoner's dilemma if each player has a dominant strategy and each player's payoff is lower when both play their dominant strategy than when both play their dominated strategy.

Hence, the correct answer is the option (c).