Prisoners Dilemma

One of my favorite classes here at AC is my political thought class. We just finished reading Machiavelli’s The Prince and we are now moving onto Hobbes. As an introduction to the issue of morality in politics we looked at the prisoners dilemma.

The Prisoners Dilemma
You have just been arrested and put in jail under a number of charges. Your partner in crime is being held in a different prison and you have no means of contacting him. You are both being questioned individuality and are given the option of confessing to your crime, or not confessing. Here are the potential consequences of your answers:

If both of you confess, then you get a 10 year sentence in prison.

If you confess, but your partner does not then you get out free and they are put in jail for life

If you don’t confess and your partner does, then you are imprisoned for life and your partner goes free.

If neither of you confess then you get 3 years in prison



Now, are you going to confess?

We spent my entire class time debating this issue. And here are some potential things to consider:
-You don’t know who your partner is. It could be your best friend or your mother, but it could also be a stranger, a criminal
-You don’t know what your crime is. It could be murder, theft, or anything in between.
-you don’t know if you are innocent or guilty
-If you just look at the numbers it looks like this:
Confess: 10 years or you go free
Don’t Confess: 3 years or life.
-Could you live with the guilt of having put someone in jail for life? How selfish would you feel?
-life is a long time to be in jail
-Should you just try to save your own skin? How much can you really trust your fellow human beings? Do you have faith in humanity?

What the issue really boiled down to in my class was the issue of trust, and how much you were willing to rely on the goodness of man to have faith in you and not confess. After this entire discussion, everyone had to decide. My entire class except for two people decided to confess. I was one of those two people. I chose not to confess for two reasons. First-I couldn't’t live with myself if I put someone in jail for life. Second: I have to believe in the goodness of mankind. I have to believe that I can trust a random stranger with my life because if not, then my world would fall down around me. If we as people can’t believe in each other then what sort of future do we have? How can we continue to build societies assuming that people will do what is best for the society as a whole? That is why I did not confess. I probably would be put in jail for life because I trust too much, but I would be able to accept that with at least a clean conscience.

Now I ask you- would you confess? Would you not confess and accept that you’d probably spend your life in prison? I’m curious to hear your responses to the prisoners dilemma..