notes-social-splitOrSteal

There's a British game show in which there is a part of the game called "spit or steal" which is basically Prisoner's Dilemma for a large amount of real money, in which the two players talk to each other for awhile before going off and then simultaneously choosing their move (in private).

Me and some friends were talking about this, and it came up that one part of the reward in such a case is not just the money, but the increment or decrement to your public reputation based on your behavior and the outcome of the game, since it is on TV. One guy made made an interesting observation: although it is harmful to your reputation to claim in negotiation that you will cooperate, and then actually defect, it is even worse for your reputation to cooperate and then have the other guy defect. That is, it's worse to have the reputation of a sucker than it is to have the reputation of a liar.