We're All Cellmates in the Prison of Love

Here's a song worth contemplation by the band The Civil Wars, made up with duo partners Joy Williams and John Paul White. I absolutely love the lyrics to this song, in the second verse, Joy sings:

I wish you'd hold me when I turn my back, 

And then John follows:

The less I give, the more I get back. 

A lot of people relate to these two lines, and what I found interesting is that this is one instance where the "prisoners' dilemma", one of the most well-known game theories comes into play.

For those of you who are new to the prisoner's dilemma, I'm going to briefly explain it in the context of this song: Joy and John both love each other, but there's no way they would know if the other shares reciprocal emotions. Here's John's rationale: if him and Joy both confess their loves, they fall in love and live happily ever after; if he confesses his loves and gets rejected, he will suffer intense heartache and Joy will triumph in the tugging war of love; if neither of them confesses, they will part ways brooding over what could've been. Suppose that Joy has the exact same rationale, the two of them will eventually choose to stay silent in attempt to protect themselves even though confessing their loves for each other will make everyone better off. In other words, in such a situation one will always come to the conclusion that the more less one gives, the more one gets back.

I hope my off-the-topic analysis hasn't ruined the song for you yet. This is one of my favorite songs, enjoy!