A quantum model of strategic decision-making explains the disjunction effect in the Prisoner’s Dilemma game

The disjunction effect introduced in the famous study by Shafir and Tversky (1992) and confirmed in subsequent studies remains one of the key “anomalies” for the standard model of the Prisoner’s Dilemma game. In the last 10 years, a new approach has appeared that explains this effect using quantum probability theory. However, the existing results do not allow for a parameter-free test of these models. This article develops a simple quantum model of the Prisoner’s Dilemma game as well as a new experimental design that enables one to test the predictions of this model. The results show the viability of the quantum model and a substantial difference between women’s and men’s representations of the game.