Outline: Chapter 12 of the Selfish Gene

Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene Outline Chapter 12: Nice Guys Finish First by Isaiah Magpali-Isaac, Tatianna Smith, Viris Colmenero

I. The Prisoner’s Dilemma a. A game that has been studied by many scientists as a way to understand how it is used by wild animals and plants. b. There is a banker who gives pays the winnings to the two players. Each player has two cards i. One of these cards is labeled “COOPERATE” ii. The other of the two is labeled “DEFECT” c. COOPERATE= if both players cooperate then both benefit- with a “fairly good” pay off and both receive a reward. d. DEFECT= if both players default then the result is “fairly bad” for both of the players and both are penalized in the same amount. e. If player 1 DEFECTS and player 2 COOPERATES, the result is very bad for player 1 and he receive a high fine f. If player 1 COOPERATES and player 2 DEFECTS then the results is “very good” for player 1 and they receive the highest payoff amount. II. Dilemma a. The reason it is called a dilemma is because the 2 players must come up with an efficient strategy where they are both benefiting from it. b. This is much like the process that occurs in nature. i. The example given is in chapter 10 with the birds, where they remove the ticks from one another. 1. One bird removes the ticks from the other, and the other can decide to return the favor or not, if not, he benefits the most, and the others gains nothing and loses the costs of his actions. III. Axelrod a. He wanted to come up with the strategies that are available for this game and try and come up with the best one and did so using a computer program. b. One of the strategies he came up with was called the Tit for Tat strategy i. This strategy starts by both cooperating first and then just copy the other player’s previous moves. c. Some terms that were coined by Axelrod i. Forgiving (overlook past misdeeds) ii. Envious (to strive for more money then the other player IV. The Prisoner’s Dilemma at work in nature a. The fig tree and the fig wasp b. The sea bass i. These fish are hermaphrodites and thus one would expect that they play the male role the majority of the time so they have less work, but it was discovered that they alternated equally between the two roles. c. Vampires i. those that got a good meal will share with those others that were not able to get one ii. those that donate blood, increase their chance of starvation, but it greatly helps out the other bat, but by not donating it benefits by not having the likelihood of starving to death.