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Cooperation versus social welfare.

The Anh Han1, Zhao Song1, Theodor Cimpeanu2

  • 1School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK.

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|November 28, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Promoting cooperation can harm social welfare due to hidden costs. Focusing solely on cooperation overlooks potential negative impacts on overall population payoff, suggesting social welfare should be the primary optimization goal.

Keywords:
Evolution of cooperationEvolutionary dynamicsOptional participationPunishmentReciprocityRewardSocial dilemmaSocial welfare

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary game theory
  • Behavioral economics
  • Social sciences

Background:

  • Cooperation is vital across disciplines, with established mechanisms for its evolution.
  • Existing interventions to promote cooperation often incur costs, potentially impacting social welfare.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review evolutionary cooperation mechanisms and interventions.
  • To analyze hidden costs that can misalign cooperation with social welfare.
  • To advocate for social welfare as the primary optimization objective.

Main Methods:

  • Review of existing literature on cooperation mechanisms and interventions.
  • Analysis of social dilemma games incorporating hidden costs.
  • Examination of mathematical models and agent-based simulations.
  • Review of supporting experimental studies.

Main Results:

  • Hidden costs associated with cooperation mechanisms and interventions can reduce social welfare.
  • Misalignment between cooperation and social welfare is more likely under specific conditions.
  • Mathematical models and simulations confirm the impact of hidden costs.

Conclusions:

  • Prioritizing cooperation alone may not optimize social good.
  • Social welfare, not just cooperation, should guide intervention design.
  • Further research is needed to explore the interplay between hidden costs, cooperation, and social welfare.