ABSTRACT
Mama Morton sings “they say that life is tit for tat and that’s the way I live.” She is in prison and her introduction to the new prisoners involves telling them she plays a tit-for-tat strategy. A tit-for-tat strategy occurs when a person will initially choose to cooperate with another person. However, if the other person chooses to no longer cooperate – he or she will then be uncooperative in the next round. So Mama Morton is approaching each new prisoner with a game theoretic mindset and an offer to them – she will cooperate and attempt to help them out in return for the new prisoners cooperating with her. But if a new prisoner ever becomes uncooperative, Mama Morton will also choose not to cooperate. This is summed up by her lyrics at the end: “when you’re good to mama, mama’s good to you.”
