Someone must volunteer for the group's benefit, but individuals prefer others volunteer.
Diekmann's 1985 game. If everyone reasons the same way, nobody volunteers and all lose — which is why designating a specific person outperforms appealing to a group.
In practice
- An alarm sounds in an open-plan office and forty people look up; the one asked by name goes and checks.
- A committee asks for a volunteer to take the minutes and gets silence, then asks a specific member and gets minutes.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Games & Strategic Interaction
- Essay
- The recurring shapes of conflict and cooperation