Collective Silence and Individual Voice: The Logic of Information Games

Abstract

In its original formulation, the Prisoners’ Dilemma concerned the decision whether or not to reveal information: two prisoners being interrogated separately had to decide whether or not to confess to a crime they had both committed. Subsequently, virtually all study of the Prisoners’ Dilemma game (and of related formalizations of collective-action problems) has examined two other classes of decision-making, unrelated to decisions to reveal or conceal information.1 These games have been used to study strategic decisions by parties in conflict, such as price-cutting by competing firms, arms build-ups or military attacks by antagonistic nations, or negative campaigns by candidates for political office; and decisions to undertake costly individual action in support of collective welfare, such as decisions to reduce pollution, restrain exploitation of common resources, or contribute to military alliances.