Question 12
5 pts
Alan and Beatrice have broken the rules and colluded in their coursework assignment, so the examiners are going to
interview them. The interviews are taking place simultaneously and there is no communication allowed between the two.
The students can either deny or confess to have colluded. The raw marks without penalty are 65 for Alan and 70 for
Beatrice. The examiners have decided on the following scheme: if they both deny they will still be penalised by 20 marks
respectively, if one denies and the other confesses then the denying student gets zero marks while the confessing student
retains their raw mark, and if they both confess, then they both get the pass mark of 40. The possible outcomes are
summarised in the table below (the first number is Alan's mark while the second number is Beatrice's). Based on this
information which of the following statements is correct?
Beatrice
Deny
Confess
Deny
45, 50
0, 70
Alan
Confess
65, 0
40, 40
The examiners have managed to devise a scheme in which the students will definitely confess.
Confessing is the dominated strategy.
The dominant strategy equilibrium will result in the highest aggregate mark.
It is in the interest of the students to deviate from the dominant strategy equilibrium.
