Orange Is the New Black: The Prisoners Dilemma Compounded? The Netflix womens prison series Orange Is the New Black opened its second season by posing a problem for its principal prisoner Piper Chapman (played by actress Taylor Schilling): Tell the truth about a major drug lord and risk his wrath, or perjure herself by lying to keep him from striking back against her and her ex-girlfriend Alex Vause (Laura Prepon). Whereas Piper wants to tell the truth to protect herself from a perjury charge and to put him away, Alex insists they both lie to protect themselves from him. These prisoners may face a social dilemma, but is it really social psychologys so-called Prisoners Dilemma? In a social dilemma, two or more people enter a situation in which they each take action while facing a conflict between individual and mutual interest: They can prioritize either their own short-term, selfish, individual desires or the long-term benefits to eveybody involved. Each can benefit by showing the other good faith. However, one can benefit more by hurting the other but only if the other does not do the same, and all will suffer if everyone abuses the situation. The motion picture A Beautiful Mind demonstrated how John Forbes Nash, Jr., realized that if every man pursued the most attractive woman in the room, they might annoy her and offend all the other women, but if they all ignored her and pursued the other women, every man might find himself with a date for the evening. By identifying the dynamics of their social dilemma, he saw how prioritizing mutual interest over the individual could benefit the largest number of people whereas prioritizing individual interest could hurt everyone involved. continue below
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 16:46:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015