Thee or Me Part 1: Morality & the Prisoner's Dilemma

In 'Thee or Me? Part 1: Morality & The Prisoner’s Dilemma' I explore why we are sometimes selfish and at other times altruistic.  The answer is a complex mix of nature and nurture, personality and circumstance.  As with self-interest, altruism is a hard-wired feature of our species – one that is critical for our survival. The first podcast explores how ethical behaviour is a product of both inherited personality preferences and social incentives and conditioning. Using the example of the 'Prisoner's Dilemma' I discuss how on average you can encourage altruistic behaviour by approaching people with an assumption of their trustworthiness and moral good intent.  But we should not be naive and should protect ourselves from bad social players.