Why Do We Get In Taxicabs?


Oddly, prisoners’ dilemma should manifest whenever you get in a cab. After having taken a cab ride why should you pay? “Because it’s the right thing to do” is not a legitimate answer in game theory land. You should pay only if it’s in your self-interest to pay. There is only a self-interested reason to pay: if you didn’t pay, the driver might get upset and cause you trouble. Perhaps he would hit you or call the police and charge you with theft of services. Now imagine, however, that you have paid; why doesn’t the driver pretend that you didn’t and ask for payment again? If the reason you initially paid was to prevent the driver from getting upset, then you should be willing to pay again to avoid the same problem. Even if you pay once, you probably wouldn’t be able to prove that you paid, so the driver could still charge you with theft of services. Of course, people ride in cabs all the time and there is rarely a problem with nonpayments or double payment demands. I’m not really sure why the prisoners’ dilemma doesn’t afflict cab rides. If it ever does become a problem, then everyone would start paying for cabs with credit cards so whether someone paid becomes provable.




Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 260

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