How Do Prisoners Solve Their Dilemma? An Experiment

Abstract

How do actual prisoners solve their proverbial dilemma? In a lab experiment, conducted in a German prison for male juvenile offenders, we find that prisoners are no less cooperative than students in a symmetric two-person prisoner’s dilemma. Using data from post-experimental tests, we explain this behavior with efficiency seeking, while our data do not support that choices are caused by inequity aversion.