Flopping in sports and the prisoner’s dilemma
Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1654485-opinion-flopping-isnt-bad-its-a-part-of-the-game
The article talks about how in basketball flopping is quite prevalent nowadays. Flopping is when a player intentionally falls over when there is little to no physical contact in the hopes of drawing a foul in their favor. As a fan flopping may seem silly, especially the extent in which certain players flop, but for a player it can be quite advantageous. A referee call in the flopping person’s favor may have a significant impact on the winning chances of that player’s team. At the same time, flopping but not getting the call results in a major advantage for the opposing team.
An example is in basketball when player A is driving in for a layup and player B is defending. There are four possible scenarios:
1) Both Player A and B can play competitively. In this case the referee is not involved.
2) Player B could flop in the hopes of getting a charging foul called on player A. If player B gets the call, player A gets an additional personal foul and player B’s team gets the ball.
3) Player A could flop in the hopes of getting a blocking foul called on player B. If player A gets the call, player B gets an additional personal foul and player A will shoot free throws.
4) Both Player A and B. In this case, either they both look silly for flopping, or they may both receive a foul.
Flopping relates a lot to the prisoner’s dilemma we’ve talked about in class. The prisoner’s dilemma is all about two people having to decide what is best for them to do, by preemptively thinking about what the opposite person will do. Instead of deciding between confessing or not, two opposing players must decide between flopping or playing. The 3 outcomes for the two players are cooperation – neither flop, betrayal – one player flops in the hopes of getting a call against the other player, and mutual destruction – both players flop. Like in the prisoner’s dilemma, flopping is an advantageous strategy. Unfortunately, it is not necessarily the dominant strategy because a flop does not necessarily guarantee a call in that players favor (if the referee doesn’t call a foul, the player who doesn’t flop has a strong advantage, ex: an uncontested layup because the defender flopped).