factual

Prisoner's dilemma evolves to all-defectors

In a basic population without added complexity, the prisoner's dilemma's Nash equilibrium of mutual defection is also the evolutionarily stable strategy: the population will evolve to all defectors, because cooperators are exploited and defectors have more offspring, so any cooperative cluster is undermined by invading defectors.

factualpending

Speaker

Cailin O'Connor

Evidence Quote

if you have a population without adding extra bells and whistles, it will just evolve to always all defectors

Source

113 | Cailin O'Connor on Game Theory, Evolution, and the Origins of UnfairnessSean Carroll's Mindscape
Created: 6/13/2026, 12:26:23 AM

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