Role polarization and its effects in the spatial ultimatum game

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Game Theory
• Social Dynamics
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Societal polarization is increasing, but its effect on fairness evolution is unclear.
• Role adaptation's impact on game outcomes, like the ultimatum game, is understudied.
• Previous models used static, random, or symmetric role assignments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how role polarization influences the evolution of fairness.
• To introduce and analyze a novel role adaptation rule.
• To understand the relationship between role adaptation, fairness, and empathy.

Main Methods:

• Introduced a succeed-reinforce-fail-slacken role adaptation rule.
• Simulated the ultimatum game with this dynamic role assignment.
• Compared outcomes across different networks and noise levels.

Main Results:

• The proposed rule favors fair strategies and promotes fairness.
• Role adaptation pace influences polarization levels and system equilibrium.
• Fairness and empathy are enhanced by role adaptation, but noise has a negative impact.
• Role polarization shows resilience to structural network changes.

Conclusions:

• Role adaptation is central to the evolution of fairness.
• The succeed-reinforce-fail-slacken rule effectively promotes fairness and empathy.
• Understanding role dynamics is crucial for addressing societal polarization and fostering cooperation.