Prisoner's Dilemma Applied and in the Classroom: The TV Game Show 'Friend or Foe'

Prisoner's Dilemma is a common game theory scenario in which two players must choose between acting cooperatively or out of pure self-interest. What a player decides affects not only his own outcome but also that of the other player. "Friend or Foe," a TV game show that has appeared on the cable Game Show Network (GSN), places pairs of contestants in a situation similar to Prisoner's Dilemma. After working together to accumulate money into a "trust fund," the two teammates divide their winnings, or not, based on their individual decisions to be a "Friend" to their teammate or a "Foe." We have collected data on the contestants and their behavior from 36 episodes of the show. In this paper we describe how the game show is played, what game theory says about the way that the contestants should act, and how they actually did act on the 36 episodes. We also present an example of how "Friend or Foe" can be used in a classroom setting not only to introduce game theory but also to review previous course material. (Contains 1 figure and 3 tables.)