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Directed reciprocity subverts cooperation in highly adaptive populations
Jean-Jacques Herings1, Ronald Peeters2, Anastas P Tenev3
1Department of Econometrics and Operations Research, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Scientific Reports
|November 26, 2024
Summary
Directed reciprocity can drive cooperation, but its effect depends on agent inertia. High inertia enhances cooperation, while low inertia subverts it, showing a complex, non-monotonic relationship.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Game Theory
- Social Dynamics
- Agent-Based Modeling
Background:
- Cooperation is essential in social systems.
- Directed reciprocity, where individuals reward those who have helped them, is a proposed mechanism for cooperation.
- The influence of agent behavior inertia on reciprocity-driven cooperation remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the interplay between directed reciprocity and agent inertia in promoting cooperation.
- To determine how different levels of inertia affect the success of reciprocity in driving cooperative behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Agent-based modeling on a circle network.
- Simulation of agents with strategies: egoistic, altruistic, and partially cooperative.
- Analysis of the interaction between reciprocity and inertia parameters.
Main Results:
- High inertia levels amplify the positive effect of reciprocity on cooperation.
- Low inertia levels lead to reciprocity undermining cooperation.
- Intermediate inertia levels exhibit a U-shaped relationship between reciprocity and cooperation.
Conclusions:
- Reciprocity's impact on cooperation is contingent on the level of agent inertia.
- The relationship between reciprocity and cooperation is non-monotonic, influenced by inertia.
- Understanding this interaction is crucial for explaining cooperation in diverse social systems.
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