A Pandemic Dilemma
This article by the Stanford Daily perfectly shows how game theory and the prisoner’s dilemma are being played out in real life on multiple scales. It paints a great picture of our current situation and how we need to cooperate instead of making decisions for our own personal interests. In most situations, there is no dominant strategy and the Nash equilibrium leads to the greater spread of Covid-19 and the possible loss of millions of lives. We can clearly see the parallels between these scenarios and the prisoner’s dilemma, and it even proves more helpful now to cooperate with the other parties instead of acting in a person’s own self-interest.
On a broad scale, as mentioned in the article, governors of neighboring states have a tough decision to make about reopening their states. Neither state wants to weaken their economy but keeping businesses open leads to the spread of covid and loss of life. There is a Nash equilibrium of both states opening up. But when every state does this, then the pandemic gets worse and lives are lost in exchange for economic benefits. The optimal strategy would be for the states to work together and slowly open businesses while controlling the spread. Similar to the prisoner’s dilemma, there is a Nash equilibrium where both parties suffer while there is a better solution if both parties cooperated. The article continues on to show how this situation holds true on smaller scales, such as individual businesses and individuals in general. We are living in a real-life prisoner’s dilemma and while game theory shows that parties will most likely continue to make decisions selfishly, if we all cooperate we can handle this pandemic more effectively.
Source: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/06/21/a-covid-19-prisoners-dilemma/