The Psychology of Brexit by Brian M. Hughes

Author:Brian M. Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030293642
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

If you confess and snitch on your friend, we will drop all charges against you, and pin it all on your friend. Your friend will go to prison for ten years.

However, if your friend confesses as well, then technically we won’t need you to snitch on each another—your confessions will be enough for us to send you both to prison, for eight years.

The prisoner’s dilemma requires you to imagine being one of the two suspects. Should you stay silent? Or should you snitch?

If you keep shtum then you will go to prison for one year (if your friend keeps quiet as well) or for ten years (if your friend blows the whistle on you). If you confess, then you could go free (if your friend stays quiet) or to prison for eight years (if your friend confesses too). In short, silence means one or ten years in jail, whereas snitching means zero or eight.

The dilemma here stems from the fact that you cannot be sure what your friend will do. They have to face the same dilemma as you. That said, snitching on your friend offers a greater reward than staying silent: after all, zero or eight years seems much more preferable than one or ten years. Betrayal is more attractive than cooperation.

The prisoner’s dilemma can be used to help explain the impasse in Parliament over the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (TLDR News, 2019). Instead of two suspects, we have two blocs of MPs, namely, Remainers and Leavers. Their choices can be summarised as follows:If they both go along with what is proposed, then the Withdrawal Agreement Bill will be passed, and the negotiated deal, including all its bad bits, will take effect.

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