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Decision
The prisoner's dilemma
Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher at RAND, 1950; the prison story is Albert Tucker's.
Two suspects are held in separate cells and cannot communicate. The prosecutor offers each the same deal. If you confess and your partner stays silent, you go free and your partner serves ten years. If you both stay silent, there is only enough evidence for a minor charge: one year each. If you both confess, five years each. If you stay silent and your partner confesses, you serve the ten years.
Your partner is as clever as you are and faces the same choice at the same moment. What do you do?