Prisoner's Dilemma

'Game Theory' studies decision strategy in determining an optimal course of action in situations involving multiple participants and multiple variable factors. The best-known Game Theory model is the 'Prisoner's Dilemma'. The scenario of the basic version of the model is--two associates are arrested on suspicion of having committed a crime, placed in separate cells, and each is told that: if only one of them is ratted out by the other, the sentence will be 10 years imprisonment; if both are ratted out, then they will each receive 5 years; and, if both remain silent, then they will both go free. What most interests Game Theory analysts is that acting on the basis of Self-Interest will likely result in 5-year sentence for each, because each will choose the optimal course of action in their power, namely to rat out the other. In other words, the Principle of Self-Interest is self-defeating in the context, because it cannot accommodate the one option, namely proceeding on the basis of mutual trust, that would in fact yield the optimal Self-Interested outcome. Or, as Evolvementalism puts it, collective interest is an enhancement, not an exclusion, of Individual Interest. And, more generally, Game Theory demonstrates how Wisdom is a function of breadth of perspective.