Do Nice Guys Really Finish Last?

You hold the door, you lend the money, you go first, and it looks like the losing move. Then a contest built to find the smartest way to deal with people ran the experiment, twice, and the nicest strategy won. Here is why, and why almost nothing in your life is one round. Entry three of an atlas, pinned on WHAT IS FAIR. The prisoner's dilemma, Axelrod's tournaments, Tit for Tat, the trenches of 1914, Golden Balls, Hobbes and Confucius. Every quotation is read from a public-domain edition; work, section, translator and edition are below. -- CHAPTERS -- 00:00 Split or steal: would you trust them? 01:04 The prisoner's dilemma, and two promises 01:27 One: the dilemma (Tucker, RAND 1950, Hobbes) 04:36 Two: the tournament (Axelrod, Tit for Tat) 08:50 Three: go first (the lost wallets) 11:41 Four: hit back (Hobbes's way out) 14:13 Live and let live in the trenches 17:38 Five: forgive (generous Tit for Tat) 20:27 Six: one round (Golden Balls) 24:07 The turn: almost nothing is one round (Confucius) 26:24 The ending 27:13 The atlas -- SOURCES, every quotation -- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651), Part I, ch. 13 and ch. 14. Original English and spelling. Gutenberg 3207. Confucius, Analects XIV.36 and XV.23. Trans. James Legge. Gutenberg 3330. -- STUDIES AND HISTORY (described, not quoted) -- Flood and Dresher, RAND (1950): the first played prisoner's dilemma, 100 rounds. Albert Tucker named it. Robert Axelrod, "Effective Choice in the Prisoner's Dilemma", Journal of Conflict Resolution 24 (1980), and "More Effective Choice" (1980); The Evolution of Cooperation (1984). Cohn, Marechal, Tannenbaum and Zund, "Civic honesty around the globe", Science 365 (2019). Nowak and Sigmund, "Tit for tat in heterogeneous populations", Nature 355 (1992). Tony Ashworth, Trench Warfare 1914-1918: The Live and Let Live System (1980). -- QUOTED CLIPS (short excerpts for commentary, each named on screen) -- Robert Sapolsky, "2. Behavioral Evolution", Stanford, YouTube:    • 2. Behavioral Evolution   Adam Grant, "Are you a giver or a taker?", TED, YouTube:    • Are you a giver or a taker? | Adam Grant   John Wilkins in "1968: Remembering the CHRISTMAS TRUCE | Voice of the People", BBC Archive, YouTube:    • 1968: Remembering the CHRISTMAS TRUCE | Vo...   Golden Balls (Endemol / ITV, 2008), via spinout3, YouTube:    • golden balls split or steal..saints and si...   and    • golden balls. the weirdest split or steal ...   Golden Balls (Endemol / ITV), via "Golden balls - February 2nd 2019 - Challenge", James, YouTube:    • Golden balls - February 2nd 2019 - Challenge   -- IMAGES AND FILM (public domain, each also named on screen) -- Thomas Hobbes (John Michael Wright, c. 1669-70, National Portrait Gallery); the Leviathan title page (Abraham Bosse, 1651, British Museum); Confucius (Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, Paris 1687); the Christmas truce, 1914 (IWM Q 50719); the Western Front, 1914-15 (IWM Q 51587); The Battle of the Somme (1916 film, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, Internet Archive); On Guard! The Story of SAGE (IBM, 1956, Prelinger Archives); The Big Bounce (Bell System, 1960, Prelinger Archives). -- FOOTAGE (each clip carries its byline on screen) -- Pexels: Anastasia Shuraeva, Antoni Shkraba, Dhanus Samsen, Edmond Dantès, Hamim Rony, Ivan S, K, Kampus Production, KoolShooters, Mikhail Nilov, PNW Production, Pressmaster, RDNE Stock project, Ron Lach, Sururi Ballıdağ, Thirdman, Yan Krukau, cottonbro studio, Özgür Sürmeli. Mixkit: marcolopez. -- MUSIC -- "Lofoten" and "Steppe" by Doc & Lena Selyanina (Musictrade MT027, 2010), licensed under CC BY 3.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... - source: https://archive.org/details/DocLenaSe... "Transcend" by Jason Shaw (Audionautix), licensed under CC BY 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... - source: https://audionautix.com "Tension" by Alex-Productions (https://onsound.eu/), licensed under CC BY 3.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... - source: https://www.free-stock-music.com/alex... Sound effects: paper sounds CC0; motion sounds CC BY 3.0 (licence link above): "SWOOSH" by Extreme Sound Effects (   • SWOOSH - Sound Effect HD  ); "Thick paper Book handling page turning" by Sound Creating (   • Thick paper Book handling page turning sou...  ); "Paper Sound Effects" by Creator Assets (   • Paper Sound Effects (Copyright Free)  ); "Knock On Stuff: The Singing Bowl" by Knock On Stuff (   • Knock On Stuff: The Singing Bowl (small)  ). --- #philosophy #prisonersdilemma #gametheory #titfortat #Hobbes #Confucius #videoessay This video quotes only public-domain texts and uses licensed or public-domain imagery. Brief excerpts of the clips above are used for commentary, criticism and education, which is fair use under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.