Gender Identity Within the Prisoner's Dilemma

Abstract

Understanding all sorts of factors that play into social and moral dilemmas such as the prisoner’s dilemma is necessary to understand decision making on all fronts. These dilemmas are manifestations of many decisions from every day (deciding what to eat for dinner) to life-changing (a nuclear war treaty). To identify if there is a link between gender identity and levels of cooperation and the expectations of a partner in the prisoner’s dilemma, this study uses quantitative data collected from high school students taking the AP English Language and Composition course at a small high school in the midwestern United States. Using a game-like replication of the prisoner’s dilemma using point values instead of jail time, this study examines the relationship between gender and the decision of an individual to either “share the points” (cooperate) or “steal the points” (defect) in two environments, one with face-to-face interaction with partners and another with total anonymity. This study also tests the relationship between the gender of the assigned partner and the decision of an individual to “share” or “steal” in the environment of face-to-face interaction. The study shows that females have significantly higher rates of cooperation in both environments (with interaction and without) and that players have a significantly higher rate of cooperation when partnered with a female player.