$0.00 – $6.00
Four-person, scoreable, prisoner’s dilemma game where players decide how to handle low water levels in 10 quick rounds; an adaptation of the case “Win As Much As You Can.”
This game is a vehicle for learning about the connection between self-interest and group welfare, trust, compliance mechanisms and ethics. It also illustrates the difference between one-time encounters and multi-round or iterative negotiations.
Scenario: Mayflower Lake has been suffering from low water levels in the late summer. The low levels are having negative impacts on the lake’s water quality, vegetation, aquatic fauna, and now, Cusk, a local fish. After heated negotiations at the end of last summer, the four primary users of the lake reached an agreement to address the low levels by cooperating to reduce water diversions. Once the lake levels drop below an agreed upon “low level”, the stakeholders have agreed to voluntarily restrict their water use to keep more water in the lake for late summer needs. The stakeholders are a farmer, a water supplier, a gardener, and the owner of a fish camp.
The summer is now here and water levels in the lake have just dropped below the agreed upon “low level”. Each participant must decide what they want to do. The “Yes” card indicates that they voluntarily cut back on their water use. The “No” card means that they do not, and instead withdraw their usual amount of water. Each round represents a successive time later in the summer when the “low level” is reached and the participants have to decide what they are going to do.
Set-up 10 min
Ten rounds of the game 15 min
Debriefing 25 min
• For all parties:
Instructions and score sheet
“Yes” and 1 “No” card for each role
• Teacher’s Package:
All of the above and Teaching Notes
Process Themes: Assumptions; Commitment; Communication; Competition v. Cooperation; Compliance; Credibility; Decision analysis; Game theory; Group process; Joint gains; Meaning of "success"; Message analysis; Risk aversion; Risk perception; Trust
Major Lessons (from the original “Win As Much As You Can”):
- Short-term gains can lead to long-term losses
- It is not in you interest to leave other people feeling as if they need to get even for past losses you have made them incur.
- Negotiate with deeds as well as with words.
- Seek reciprocity.
- Create compliance mechanisms where necessary, such as penalties!
- Monitoring of compliance is important! You have to be able to see that other people are abiding by their agreements and may need to demonstrate that you are as well.
- Make yourself trustworthy.
- Invoke reputation (yours and theirs).
Win As Much WATER As You Can! Attributes
|Time required:||50 minutes|
|Number of participants:||4|
|Neutral third party present:||None|
|Teaching notes available:||Yes|