Nice Guy vs Self-Centered Guy

"Nice guys finish last." page 202

This is the perfect phrase to begin chapter 12.  We read half of the chapter in class and during that time period we came across the game Prisoner's Dilemma.  The game is basically used to describe how animals would act in a situation.  There are two options in this game, cooperate or defect.

Cooperate: (v.) to work together willingly

Defect: (v.) to disagree with the other person and not work together

In the game there is a banker and two players that will either defect or cooperate with the other.  In this game there are four possible outcomes:

1. Both players play the card cooperate so the banker pays them each $300.  This reward is referred to as the reward for mutual cooperation.

2. Both players play the card defect so the banker fines each player $10.  This reaction is called the punishment for mutual defection.

3. One player plays defect and the other plays cooperate.  The banker pays the person who defected $500 for causing the temptation to defect and fines the person who cooperated $100 for being the "sucker".

4. The same as the third outcome, but the other way around with the players.

I honestly find this game to be ridiculous. It is the perfect guessing game for Dawkins to use to support his statement that all humans and animals are selfish.  The players can either be selfish or kind with the each other but the prize makes them think through what their official choice should be.  Since being selfish has the biggest reward, why not be selfish?  That is how the animal and human world works.  This game not only explains life, but how society came to be.  The low and middle class were the suckers while the high class were the people who tempted.

On page 207, Dawkins uses the birds from chapter 10 to support the fact that Prisoner's Dilemma is constantly played between species.  If both birds cooperate with each other, they will take each other's ticks off and therefore end up clean.  If they both defect, they will not achieve anything and will continue to have ticks on them.  If one bird cooperates and the other bird defects, then the bird who cooperated will have the dirty work of taking the ticks off of the other bird.  The bird who defected would achieve being clean and would not have to do any of the dirty work.  Therefore, the bird who cooperated will suffer because it would not have achieved anything and remain with ticks.