The Impact of Cooperation Under Climate Constraints: An Agent-Based Model for Exploring Paleolithic Behavioral...

Modern humans dispersed throughout the entire world during the Pleistocene, completing an important part of our evolutionary history. Central Asia, one of the most challenging territories to be colonized, is characterized by continental climate and stark geographic contrasts and therefore offers an ideal context for testing hypotheses about the role of human behavior in dispersals under adverse conditions. Here, we introduce an evolutionary theoretical agent-based model exploring the effects of cooperation on dispersal under different climate constraints in two study sub-regions, the Altai and Tian Shan Mountains. The model uses an evolutionary framework to test cooperation dilemmas in four theoretical climate scenarios based on the average temperature during glacial and interglacial periods. We show that (a) population size can significantly influence the pressure on the group, such that a larger population implies more pressure to cooperate; (b) cooperative behaviors are needed for survival in the harshest conditions; and (c) if the initial probability of non-cooperation is higher, then human groups will tend to be non-cooperative even if a cooperative subgroup pushes them to cooperate. Our results demonstrate that the degree of cooperation significantly impacts survival during periods of extreme climatic deterioration. This work provides valuable insights into the mechanisms influencing the settlement of climatically challenging regions by prehistoric groups.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10816-025-09739-z.