Stump the Person Below You! (Game)

[Rota]

Classic prisoner dilemma:

You and a friend are caught in a crime. They have enough evidence on both of you to convict you of minor version of the offense. The police can just send you both to jail for 1 year, right now. But, you are being offered a deal.

You can rat on your friend and disclose the details that would allow them to convict a more serious version of the crime. He will go to jail for 10 years, and you walk out the door today as a free man.

Your friend is being offered the exact same deal.

1) If both prisoners stay silent, it's one year in prison for both.
2) If one prisoner rats, then it's 10 years for the other, and freedom for him.
3) If both spill the beans about the dirty details, then both share the 10 years, serving 5 each.


What do you do, and why? Are you silent, or do you tell them everything?

There is no wrong answer, by the way. It's a classic situation I've studied in Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy classes in college. It can probably be applied to quite a few subjects.