In the more general version of this game without the prisoner cover story, there are two strategies, cooperate (stay silent) or defect (confess). The game theoretic prediction is that both players will defect because, no matter what the other player does, it is in the selfish best interest of each player to do so. Yet when this game is played in the laboratory, 40–50% of the players cooperate, which means that about half the players either do not understand the logic of the game or feel that cooperating is the just the right thing to do, or possibly both.
