The Doping Dilemma

This is a very interesting article by Scientific American. It outlines the issue between athletes and the use of performance enhancing substances. They compare using these drugs to the prisoners dilemma game. Their analysis shows the incentive the athletes have to cheat and why many of them do it on a constant basis. The article also outlines ways for the sporting commissions to change their policies so a nash equilibrium can be reached without athletes using these substances.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-doping-dilemma

I was a little confused about the Prisoners Game when it was explained in class (I think it was explained backward at first) but this article cleared it up for me. I not only liked the comparison using the Prisoners Game but also there is a mention of cascades. If one athlete uses performance enhancing drugs, then it “forces” the next athlete to attempt to keep up and use them as well. The term “well everybody is doing it” really applies to this situation.