Question

A college professor suspects that two students helped each other cheat on the last exam, on which they both earned high A's, but she does not have ironclad proof. She decides to employ the prisoner's dilemma to see if she can get one or both of the students to crack. Describe what she might do. Then, using this scenario, describe why cooperation is both beneficial and risky.

Answer 1

Answer:

The idea of the prisoner's dilemma is the aim for two persons to strike a balance between cooperativeness and competition.

Explanation:

Once the teacher finds out that there has been two persons copying in her class test she can give them the following option to  confess:

1. If they tell on each other they will have the test graded fairly but they must share the grade (divided by 2).
2. If only one of them confess and the other doesn't only one person will receive the "F" the confessor will be graded fairly.
3. If they both confess to their wrong they will get to re-do the assignment and will be marked out of 80%.
4. If neither of them confess, they both get cited for plagiarism and risk getting expelled from the school altogether.

This will be sure to get a confession of some sort. But I believe if you suspect copying this is a very high energy way to solve that problem for the professor. Simply give both of them zero and write the reason. The will react according to their accountability.