The Game Show Friend or Foe: In private and without discussion, each teammate selects whether he/she is a friend or a foe. Once the choices are made, they are unalterable. The combination of the choices determines how the trust fund is split. If both choose friend, 50/50 split If both choose foe neither gets any money If one chooses friend and the other foe, then foe receives the entire trust fund friend receives zero Have the class choose two players (or ask for volunteers), and have them play for some money.

Choosing Foe: If the other contestant chooses Friend, then I earn more money by choosing Foe ($1,000,000 versus $500,000). If they choose Foe, then it is the same for me either way ($0). So Foe is a slightly better choice, and I also avoid the scenario where the other contestant earns everything while I walk away with nothing. Choosing Friend: I hope that my teammate chooses Friend since splitting the pot is the fairest method.

David Blackwell and the Prisoner’s Dilemma In fact, the situation with the Soviet Union has elements like this in it. To cooperate is to disarm and to double-cross is to re-arm with bigger and bigger weapons. That takes a lot of resources and we would both be better off disarming. But each is afraid that if he throws away his weapons, the other one will not and he will be at a great disadvantage. So, when I saw that this… led to an armaments race, so to speak, I realized I was not the one to come up with a satisfactory theory… I keep on encouraging other people to work on it, though. David Blackwell: Interviewed by Donald J. Albers Statistical Science