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24 J. Conflict Resol. 3 (1980)

handle is hein.journals/jcfltr24 and id is 1 raw text is: Effective Choice in the Prisoner's Dilemma ROBERT AXELROD Institute of Public Policy Studies University of Michigan This is a primer on how to play the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma game effectively. Existing research approaches offer the participant limited help in understanding how to cope effectively with such interactiqns. To gain a deeper understanding of how to be effective in such a partially competitive and partially cooperative environment, a computer tournament was conducted for the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. Decision rules were submitted by entrants who were recruited primarily from experts in game theory from a variety of disciplines: psychology, political science, economics, sociology, and mathema- tics. The results of the tournament demonstrate that there are subtle reasons for an in- dividualistic pragmatist to cooperate as long as the other side does, to be somewhat for- giving, and to be optimistic about the other side's responsiveness. INTRODUCTION ITERATED PRISONER'S DILEMMA This article is a primer on how to play the Prisoner's Dilemma game effectively. International politics is just one of the arenas which offer numerous occasions of the Prisoner's Dilemma iterated for many moves. For example, between the United States and the Soviet Union there are aspects of the Prisoner's Dilemma in such sequences of events as arma- AUTHOR'S NOTE: I would like to thank those who made this project possible, the participants whose names and affiliations are given in the Appendix. I would also like to thank Jeff Pynnonen, my research assistant, for helping to prepare the executive program for the tournament. And for their helpful suggestions concerning the design and analysis of the tournament, I would like to thank John Chamberlin, Michael Cohen, and Serge Taylor. For its support of this research, I owe thanks to the Institute of Public Policy Studies of the University of Michigan. JOURNAL OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION, Vol. 24 No. 1, March 1980 3-25 @ 1980 Sage Publications, Inc. 3

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