Well, one pirate changing their vote to &quot;no&quot; wouldn&#x27;t actually kill anyone. So it sounds like you want a utility function over outcomes (prefer outcomes where someone is killed) and another, separate utility function over actions (prefer voting to kill someone even if that won&#x27;t actually kill them).<p>That&#x27;s a pretty unusual setup, because game theory usually just gives you a utility function over outcomes and lets you derive strategic behavior from that, without fiddling with individual actions. Though I guess most people solving the problem have tried to merge the two utility functions somehow? That&#x27;s probably the root of the disagreement in this thread...