An Unreasonable Professor Presents A Dilemma

Suppose you have a lazy economics prof. He tells you that rather than teaching a proper course and giving out proper grades, he will base your grade on a single choice.

You have two options: alpha and beta. After all students choose, you will be randomly paired with another student in the class.

If you both you and your partner have chosen alpha, you each get a B. If both you and your partner have choosen beta, you each get an A. However, if one of you has chosen alpha and the other has chosen beta, the one who chose alpha gets an A+ and the one who has chosen beta gets a C.

Which do you choose?

Beta. It's for the greater good and the odds become greater that you will at least get an A. It would take someone very ballsey (or ignorant) to choose Alpha simply because pairings are at random and the majority of the class would most likely settle for the A over a B or even an A+ anyday! The classroom society as a whole will most likely vote for the lesser of two evils, conform, go with the flow. It's actually a great economics exercise!

I took the poll only after answering with my initial post. I forgot to add not only would choosing Alpha be due to one being ballsey and possibly ignorant...but they would also be selfish.

I would go with alpha. If I chose alpha and my partner chose alpha, I would get a B. If I chose alpha and my partner chose beta, I would get an A+. If I chose beta, it'd be between C and A...

but they would also be selfish.

How is it selfish?

Judging by the results of this poll, a lot of NFs are going to end up with 'C's. I will track this poll further to see if it changes.

I would drop the class.

But okay, if I had to choose, it would be alpha.

alpha here also. If I chose beta then there would be a chance of getting a C in the class.

Originally Posted by OctoberSkye

I would drop the class.

But okay, if I had to choose, it would be alpha.

idem.

OT, I would like to see this test repeated on a little higher score, say...your and your random partner's lives XD.
I don't know if results would be the same

Ah, the classic prisoner's dillemma.

Prisoner's dilemma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm an SP and I went with beta.

This is used in the standard Intro to Game Theory Courses. The "correct" answer is supposedly alpha because it's your dominant strategy.