The Power Of Social Media: The Prisoner's Dilemma
Introduction
Today we live in the product of an environment delegated by white men that intentionally excluded BIPOCs, women, and LGBTQ+ peoples. Over time this exclusiveness has settled in complex vertical institutions that have made it difficult to create authentic systems of trust and respect for each other. One major example brought to mainstream by director Ava DuVernay includes the evolution of the 13th Amendment of the United States constitution from “abolishing slavery” to the ethnic profiling and mass incarceration of BIPOCs in the industrial-prison complex it stands today.
Where the prison-system is only one example, over the generations, the constant systemic abuse of minority groups has steered the majority group in society to believe promotion of equal opportunity, especially in an economic perspective, will hinder the outcome for the majority group. This idea closely resembles the Prisoner’s Dilemma in traditional Game Theory. Where due to its non-cooperative nature, the robber
The oppression of vibrant micro-economies prevents opportunities for minority groups and majority groups to dismantle the vertical institutions.
Game Theory and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
Game theory is a junction between mathematical and scientific theories and social interactions. The goal of game theory is for “players”, or those participating in a particular social interaction, to work together and reach a desired outcome that is equally beneficial to each player. There are two main types of games related to this idea: cooperative and non-cooperative. In a cooperative game, players want to work together to reach a mutual goal, and the outcome benefits both players. In non-cooperative games, there is a clear winner and loser; players work against each other to compete towards a goal that can only be achieved by one player.
There is a lot of strategy involved in creating possible routes for players to take to reach a common solution, which is where the mathematical principles come into play. An important principle to understand when it comes to designing player interactions in cooperative situations is the Nash equilibrium. Within game theory, the Nash equilibrium has been reached when the preferred outcome for all players can be reached without motivation for individuals to stray from the normal strategy of the game for their own personal gain. This is helpful because it means that players can focus on working together to reach a common goal as opposed to competing with one another to reach an individual goal.
One of the most common games is the Prisoner’s Dilemma, where the traditional story tells of two arrested robbers and the police interrogates them in separate rooms. They are given three options:
If neither robber confesses to the crime, they will each serve 1 year in jail
If robber #1 snitches on robber #2 but not the other way around, robber #2 will serve 10 years in jail while robber #1 serves 0 years, the same deal is offered vice versa.
If both robbers snitch on each other, they will both serve 5 years in jail
To the reader of the situation, it is pretty obvious that the best solution in this is for neither robber to confess and then each serve 1 year. However, this requires a certain level of trust between the two players, and the uncertainty of what decision the other player will make is where issues can arise in game theory. In the prisoner’s dilemma, the Nash equilibrium is actually the [snitch, snitch] option as the incentive to [snitch, stay quiet] for each robber is the optimal individual choice. The separation of the robbers and the intentional prevention of cooperation highlights the importance of trust.
In many ways, the interrogation rooms in the prisoner’s dilemma analogizes the current system we live in. Different people are kept in different rooms, and we definitely do not teach each other a reason to cooperate. Over centuries people have fought against these walls, today we encapsulate a superpower that transcends walls, technology. The power of social media in influencing the white man’s informal institutions in the West has created the power for younger (and older) generations to educate themselves on these issues that we have remained blind for.
What would our world look like if great inventors like Sarah Boone and Ellen Eglin were supported by an equal justice system and given the same economic opportunities as whites. Through our global connectivity, we can design a cooperative system that allows us to create these opportunities for each other. This is effectively the practice of hyper-equality, to create an inclusive economic system that intends to push those with lesser opportunities above those that can, this levers into a continuous re-investment strategy where knowledge instigated through education provided on platforms like Instagram translates into real time behavior in the way we coordinate economic activity with each other. One example is the sharing of supporting black-owned businesses online. By delegating a local investment scenario, we push communities, shareholders, and stakeholders up together and thus push the baseline of the population higher.
Where game theory in general is an attempt to understand our social interactions, often from an economic perspective. It is important to realize how these theories can be analogies to recognize real world history and behavior. The prisoner’s dilemma creates the example of two people in separate rooms interrogated. We’re advocating for individuals to break those walls, if we educate ourselves on the history of our society’s institutions and learn about the experiences of those different from us. In doing so it can move us from the Nash equilibria in the prisoner’s dilemma, to the obvious global, cooperative answer. Through this, we translate our newly gained knowledge into pro-active, prosocial behavior that have a second order effect on the way we stimulate local economies.
Interested in breaking down those walls? Join in on the BLM social media movement and follow accounts on Instagram like:
Soyouwanttotalkabout
ReniEddoLodge
Rachel.cargle
ladyphyll
Theblackcurriculum
Context.project
Laylafsaad
blackandembodied
Where to change your spending habits?