Other Two-Person Decision Situations Not all social decisions have the same structure as the Prisoners’ Dilemma. It is important to analyze each case because the way of finding an optimal or at least satisfactory solution will be different in each case. Let us look at a familiar two- person decision problem which used to be called the “Battle of the Sexes” but has been renamed the “Clash of Wills”.

The Clash of Wills Problem Able and Baker are old friends living in separate cities. On the phone they resolve to spend the up-coming holiday together. Able would like to go skiing; Baker would prefer to go to a music festival. Before they can come to a conclusion, the phone goes dead. They have to leave immediately for the airport and so much individually decide what to do.

Orderings of Their Preferences Able’s prefs: Ski with Baker Festival with Baker Ski alone Festival alone Baker’s prefs: Festival with Able Ski with Able Festival alone Ski alone

Clash of Wills Matrix B’s Opts: A’s Opts: Go SkiingGo to the Festival Go Skiing 2nd 1st 3rd Go to the Festival 4th 1st 2nd Note that Able has no “best” or “dominating option. Neither is there a single outcome which is best for both of them although the two outcomes on the diagonal are better than the going alone outcomes.

Resolving this Kind of Case IF the two had been able to complete their phone call there would be one obvious solution: toss a coin and both go together. Or they could contract to let Able decide this time and Baker the next. Or I suppose they could just find out who had the “stronger will” where the “weaker” person unilaterally gives in. With any of the above solutions each person is guaranteed to at least get their second most desirable outcome.

Making the Outcome Worse If negotiations break down, however, we can easily imagine Able saying that s/he is going to go skiing no matter what. And Baker replying that there’s no way s/he wants to go anywhere with Able. In which case Able will go skiing alone, Baker will go to the festival alone and they will now be stuck with the outcomes that each ranked 3rd at the beginning!