prisoner's dilemma games imply that cooperative behavior between two people or two firms always breaks down. but reality teaches us that people and firms often cooperate successfully to achieve their goals. why do the results from prisoner's dilemma games fail to predict real-world results? the prisoner's dilemma does not apply to most situations that are repeated over and over. prisoner's dilemma games predict the behavior of people and firms that engage in illegal activity; most people and firms do not resort to illegal activity. prisoner's dilemma games do not permit people or firms from reneging on agreements, which often occurs in real-word situations. most real-world situations involve more than two people or firms; the prisoner's dilemma is only applicable to situations that involve two parties.