Examples

This situation is a generalization of the two-person Prisoner's Dilemma situation to more than two persons (hence, it is sometimes called an N-person PD or NPD situation; its other most common label is a social dilemma). As in the Prisoner's Dilemma Game (PDG), each person's concern is whether she or he should make a choice which advantages the self but disadvantages others – in this situation, several others (e.g., all members of a group). For example, the police might give each member of a captured N-person criminal gang the same basic choices offered to the two prisoners in the classic PD (e.g., confess and thereby knock 1 year off your own sentence but also thereby add 2 years to every other gang member's sentence). Or, members of a fishing village might choose between maximizing their individual catches (and, hence, profits) versus limiting their catches/profits (but thereby helping to preserve the long-term viability of the fishing grounds upon which this and future generations of the village depend); Hardin's (1968) famous example of the “Tragedy of the Commons” is a very similar social dilemma. Or, members of a group performing some task might choose between working hard (and thereby improving the chances of the group performing well and quickly) or hardly working (and saving themselves effort while still profiting from any group success). In each case, noncooperative behavior brings better outcomes for oneself; but cooperative behavior brings better outcomes to the group as a whole.