[olah_1]

> after which all participants switch to the bad behavior

This is how it has become with job applications. So many people started lying on resumes that the job reqs starting raising the requirements for a position, which causes more people to need to lie. If you don't lie, you just don't get a job and starve/die.

[rachofsunshine]

The Jerk Threshold is particularly low in low-trust, low-verifiability, usually-not-iterated games, and there's almost no setting that fits those conditions more than a job search.

[olah_1]

Good point. I think the difference is that the society as a whole was much higher-trust than it is today. America is back to being the Wild West, take what you can and don’t look back.