# Split or Steal?

The UK game show [_Golden Balls_](!W) (don't laugh) asks the two participants who make it to the final round to split their win using a variant of the [prisoner's dilemma](!W). A typical final round of the game looks [something like this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBtr8-VMj0E): heavy on bluffing and serious-faced human drama. What happened when one participant applied a little game theory is [rather different](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qjK3TWZE8). It is worth watching just for how everybody else reacts to the smirking instigator's strategy.

## Page metadata

URL: <https://dbohdan.com/split-or-steal.md>

Published 2015-05-02, updated 2021-08-21.

Tags:

- game theory
- humor
- old blog
- psychology
- rationality
- television

Index: [Old blog](/old-blog).