What is the ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma?'

Prisoners dilemma is a business game or exercise which is
designed to emphasize the superiority of collaboration and cooperation over competition and
conflict. The original game features to players or groups taking decision in the role of two
prisoners who are put in an adversarial situation, so that the result of decision taken by any
one is also affected by the decision of the other. The decision taken by each is not known to the
other and the result of combination of decision affects both of them, which may or may not be in
the same way.

The situation presented in the case is that two
persons A and B have been imprisoned for an alleged crime. Each prisoner is asked choose to agree
or refuse to testify against the other. The choices made by the two players present four
different combinations. These
are:

A                          
B

Testifies                 Does not
Testify

Testifies                
Testifies

Does not Testify     
Testifies

Does not Testify      Does
not Testify

for each of the above
combination of option chosen by players they receive payoff in terms of jail terms of varying
duration. These pay offs are fixed so that the combined result for both the players is most
attractive when both choose not to testify against the other. It is least attractive when both
choose to testify each other. When only one person chooses to testify, that player gets rewarded
for it while the other one gets punished.