What was the key characteristic of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union that makes it applicable to the Prisoner's Dilemma?
A)Each side had real incentives to cheat in order to spend less money.
B)Each side wanted to collaborate in order to keep from blowing up the world in a nuclear war.
C)Each side had an incentive to cheat in order to maintain superiority over the other.
D)The United States provided evidence of nuclear weapons,while the Soviet Union remained quiet and thus defected instead of cooperating.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The key characteristic of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union that makes it applicable to the Prisoner's Dilemma is that each side had an incentive to cheat in order to maintain superiority over the other. This is similar to the dilemma faced by two individuals in the game theory scenario, where each has an incentive to defect or cheat in order to improve their outcome, but both defecting leads to a worse outcome for both. Similarly, both the US and the USSR had an incentive to maintain superiority, but the result was an arms race that could have led to mutual destruction.

What Was the Key Characteristic of the Nuclear Arms Race