danryan.us

Following SEP's lecture 17.3, "Seven Ways To Cooperation," we expect cooperation when the probability of repeat encounters is larger than the ration of cost to me of cooperating to benefit I might receive if you cooperate "back" at me next time:

The cost of allowing the person with a small order go ahead is waiting 2 minutes. The benefit to that person is 10 minutes. Thus,

Since the probability of meeting again is greater than this value in city C we expect to see the practice there but we would not expect to see it in city A. City B is right on the threshold so it could go either way.

This is "cooperation through repetition."