Factors of influence in prisoner’s dilemma task: a review of medical literature

Abstract

The Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) is one of the most popular concepts amongst the scientific literature. The task is used in order to study different types of social interactions by giving participants the choice to defect or cooperate in a specific social setting/dilemma. This review focuses on the technical characteristics of the PD task as it is used in medical literature and describes how the different PD settings could influence the players’ behaviour. We identify all the studies that have used the PD task in medical research with human participants and distinguish, following a heuristic approach, seven parameters that can differentiate a PD task, namely (a) the opponent parties’ composition; (b) the type of the opponent as perceived by the players; (c) the interaction flow of the game; (d) the number of rounds; (e) the instructions narrative and options that are given to players; (f) the strategy and (g) the reward matrix and payoffs of the game. We describe how each parameter could influence the final outcome of the PD task and highlight the great variability concerning the settings of these parameters in medical research. Our aim is to point out the heterogeneity of such methods in the past literature and to assist future researchers with their methodology design.

Strategic decision making and prediction differences in autism

“…Our own computerized version of an iterated, simultaneous PD task was developed for this study ( Mantas et al, 2022a ). A simultaneous PD involves the participant and their opponents submitting their task choices at the same time, without knowing what each other chose to do (for review see Mantas et al, 2022b ).…”

The Impact of Strategy Awareness on Student Rationality within the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game

“…Although Joshi et al (2005) and Grieco (1998) asserted that the Prisoner's Dilemma Game could be used to test student rationality in common everyday scenarios, Mantas et al (2022) demonstrated why the Prisoner's Dilemma Game can be applied to test rationality. Mantas et al (2022) put participants through an EEG, which analyzes brain patterns, to determine if the part of the brain responsible for rationality lit up when responding to the Prisoner's Dilemma Game. Mantas et al (2022) concluded that the Prisoner's Dilemma Game could be used to test if a certain population is rational, because the frontal lobe was activated which is responsible for rationality.…”

“…Mantas et al (2022) put participants through an EEG, which analyzes brain patterns, to determine if the part of the brain responsible for rationality lit up when responding to the Prisoner's Dilemma Game. Mantas et al (2022) concluded that the Prisoner's Dilemma Game could be used to test if a certain population is rational, because the frontal lobe was activated which is responsible for rationality. In addition, Mantas et al (2022) provided specific scenarios that can be used to test rationality, which could be implemented into a survey in future research.…”

“…Mantas et al (2022) concluded that the Prisoner's Dilemma Game could be used to test if a certain population is rational, because the frontal lobe was activated which is responsible for rationality. In addition, Mantas et al (2022) provided specific scenarios that can be used to test rationality, which could be implemented into a survey in future research. By providing multiple scenarios with two possible options, a population could be rational depending on how often the group chooses the best option (Mantas et al, 2022).…”

Learning to Resolve Social Dilemmas: A Survey

“…Given its significance and its inherent complexity, the problem of social dilemmas has generated significant research into its resolution. This research is spread across a wide range of scientific disciplines: computer science (Rogers et al, 2007;Han et al, 2013;Leibo et al, 2017;Peysakhovich & Lerer, 2018b;Noordman & Vreeswijk, 2019;, physical science (Szabó & Fath, 2007;Perc & Szolnoki, 2008;Droz et al, 2009;Matsuzawa et al, 2016;Huang et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019;Jusup et al, 2022), biological science (Masuda & Ohtsuki, 2009;Bitsch et al, 2018;Eimontaite et al, 2019;Mantas et al, 2022;Fu et al, 2010;Ifti et al, 2004;Killingback et al, 2010), and social science (Rapoport & Mowshowitz, 1966;Smale, 1980;Rubinstein, 1986;Selten & Stoecker, 1986;Raub, 1988;Kollock, 1998;Lopez et al, 2022). A primary objective of this research is to understand what factors drive individual behaviours toward socially desirable outcomes, and what are the ways in which such behaviours can be established and sustained in a society.…”