The Burr Dilemma or chicken dilemma exists in an election of multiple votes where a set of voters prefer two candidates over all others, while at best, only one is likely to win. Both candidates are incentivized to publicly encourage voters to support the other candidate while privately encouraging some supporters to only vote for themselves. When taken too far, this strategy may cause too many defections from both candidates' support such that both lose, while avoiding defections prevents an effective choice between the two candidates. It is named after Aaron Burr in the U.S. Presidential election of 1800, by Professor Jack H. Nagel,The Burr Dilemma in Approval Voting Jack H. Nagel, University of Pennsylvania - Political Science where both Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr ran as Democratic-Republicans.Simeone and Pukelsheim (2006) p. 142 3.1 The Burr Dilemma. The other name, "chicken dilemma", comes from the game of chicken.
