The Prisoner's Dilemma

Our entire life is made up of different strategies. Some people tend to be more aggressive while others tend to be more timid. Why is this? According to Von Neumann and his modern version of Game Theory, games are assumed to have rational strategies. This is exactly what we see in the game we call life. In this lab, we are studying two different strategies. This is also sort of a tweak on the Prisoners Dilemma. Instead of having two criminals using strategies to try to get a lower sentence, we see animals using two different strategies in order to increase their chance at survival. Although, I would like to note that unlike the Prisoners Dilemma, the strategies used in the lab are not choices made. These strategies are automatic due to evolution …show more content…
In order to study this thoroughly, the lab has been split up into three parts. The first part focuses on how the two different strategies work when they are exclusive. The data that is recorded is population and fitness. For this part, I hypothesized that if the strategies are exclusive, then the doves will have the largest population size and fitness after 1000 generations. I believe this because in the dove strategy no one is harming or killing each other. Whereas, the hawks will harm and kill each other which will result in a lower population and a lower fitness. For the second part, the lab focused on what happens when the two strategies are mixed. In this part, I hypothesized that if hawks and dove are mixed, then hawks will out compete doves in population size and fitness. I believe this to be true because the hawks will attack the doves, but the doves will not fight back. Therefore, the fitness and the population of the doves will go down way more comparatively. For the third part, the lab introduces retaliators to the