Since over half a century ago, a Prisoner’s Dilemma is perceived
as a metaphor of how the use of uncoordinated selfish actions traps
groups of people into a non-cooperative equilibrium, not maximizing
their collective welfare. Naturally, identifying the conditions
under which the dilemma disappears in order for social optimality
to emerge under uncoordinated individual actions has been a major
theme of a prolific research agenda. Among other things, it has
been established that repetition of a Prisoner’s Dilemma favors the
emergence of cooperation, due to a variety of reasons, like learning
or, simply, as the subgame perfect equilibrium1 of a supergame.
Following these results, the likelihood of being re-matched with
the same person in a social group also increases the probability of
reaching the cooperative outcome.2 Furthermore, evolutionary game
theory has offered the theoretical background for a similar result,