Spatial Games Based on Pursuing the Highest Average Payoff

We propose a strategy updating mechanism based on pursuing the highest average payoff to investigate the prisoner＇s dilemma game and the snowdrift game. We apply the new rule to investigate cooperative behaviours on regular, small-world, scale-free networks, and find spatial structure can maintain cooperation for the prisoner＇s dilemma game. fn the snowdrift game, spatial structure can inhibit or promote cooperative behaviour which depends on payoff parameter. We further study cooperative behaviour on scale-free network in detail. Interestingly, non-monotonous behaviours observed on scale-free network with middle-degree individuals have the lowest cooperation level. We also find that large-degree individuals change their strategies more frequently for both games.     

Scale-free networks provide a unifying framework for the emergence of cooperation

We study the evolution of cooperation in the framework of evolutionary game theory, adopting the prisoner's dilemma and snowdrift game as metaphors of cooperation between unrelated individuals. In sharp contrast with previous results we find that, whenever individuals interact following networks of contacts generated via growth and preferential attachment, leading to strong correlations between individuals, cooperation becomes the dominating trait throughout the entire range of parameters of both games, as such providing a unifying framework for the emergence of cooperation. Such emergence is shown to be inhibited whenever the correlations between individuals are decreased or removed. These results are shown to apply from very large population sizes down to small communities with nearly 100 individuals.     

Evolutionary Games in Two-Layer Networks with the Introduction of Dominant Strategy

We study evolutionary games in two-layer networks by introducing the correlation between two layers through the C-dominance or the D-dominance. We assume that individuals play prisoner's dilemma game(PDG) in one layer and snowdrift game(SDG) in the other. We explore the dependences of the fraction of the strategy cooperation in different layers on the game parameter and initial conditions. The results on two-layer square lattices show that, when cooperation is the dominant strategy; initial conditions strongly influence cooperation in the PDG layer while have no impact in the SDG layer. Moreover,in contrast to the result for PDG in single-layer square lattices, the parameter regime where cooperation could be maintained expands significantly in the PDG layer. We also investigate the effects of mutation and network topology. We find that different mutation rates do not change the cooperation behaviors. Moreover,similar behaviors on cooperation could be found in two-layer random networks.     

Evolution of cooperation among mobile agents

We study the effects of mobility on the evolution of cooperation among mobile players, which imitate collective motion of biological flocks and interact with neighbors within a prescribed radius R. Adopting the the prisoner’s dilemma game and the snowdrift game as metaphors, we find that cooperation can be maintained and even enhanced for low velocities and small payoff parameters, when compared with the case that all agents do not move. But such enhancement of cooperation is largely determined by the value of R, and for modest values of R, there is an optimal value of velocity to induce the maximum cooperation level. Besides, we find that intermediate values of R or initial population densities are most favorable for cooperation, when the velocity is fixed. Depending on the payoff parameters, the system can reach an absorbing state of cooperation when the snowdrift game is played. Our findings may help understanding the relations between individual mobility and cooperative behavior in social systems.     

Coexistence of cooperators and defectors in well mixed populations mediated by limiting resources

Traditionally, resource limitation in evolutionary game theory is assumed just to impose a constant population size. Here we show that resource limitations may generate dynamical payoffs able to alter an original prisoner's dilemma, and to allow for the stable coexistence between unconditional cooperators and defectors in well-mixed populations. This is a consequence of a self-organizing process that turns the interaction payoff matrix into evolutionary neutral, and represents a resource-based control mechanism preventing the spread of defectors. To our knowledge, this is the first example of coexistence in well-mixed populations with a game structure different from a snowdrift game.     

A novel snowdrift game model with edge weighting mechanism on the square lattice

We propose a novel snowdrift game model with edge weighting mechanism to explore the cooperative behaviors among the players on the square lattice. Based on the assumption of three types of weight distribution including uniform, exponential and power-law schemes, the cooperation level is largely boosted in contrast with the traditional snowdrift game on the unweighted square lattice. Extensive numerical simulations indicate that the fraction of cooperators greatly augments, especially for the intermediate range of cost-to-benefit ratio r. Furthermore, we investigate how the cooperative behaviors are affected by the undulation amplitude of weight distribution and noise strength of strategy selection, respectively. The simulation results will be conducive to further understanding and analyzing the emergence of cooperation, which is a ubiquitous phenomenon in social and biological science.     

Evolution of Cooperation in Evolutionary Games for Heterogeneous Interactions

When a population structure is modelled as a square lattice,the cooperation may be improved for an evolutionary prisoner dilemma game or be inhibited for an evolutionary snowdrift game.In this work,we investigate cooperation in a population on a square lattice where the interaction among players contains both prisoner dilemma game and snowdrift game.The heterogeneity in interaction is introduced to the population in two different ways:the heterogenous character of interaction assigned to every player(HCP) or the heterogenous character of interaction assigned to every link between any two players(HCL).The resonant enhancement of cooperation in the case of HCP is observed while the resonant inhibition of cooperation in the case of HCL is prominent.The explanations on the enhancement or inhibition of cooperation are presented for these two cases.     

Behavior of Collective Cooperation Yielded by Two Update Rules in Social Dilemmas: Combining Fermi and Moran Rules

We combine the Fermi and Moran update rules in the spatial prisoner's dilemma and snowdrift games to investigate the behavior of collective cooperation among agents on the regular lattice. Large-scale simulations indicate that, compared to the model with only one update rule, the cooperation behavior exhibits the richer phenomena, and the role of update dynamics should be paid more attention in the evolutionary game theory. Meanwhile, we also observe that the introduction of Moran rule, which needs to consider all neighbor's information, can markedly promote the aggregate cooperation level, that is, randomly selecting the neighbor proportional to its payoff to imitate will facilitate the cooperation among agents. Current results will contribute to further understand the cooperation dynamics and evolutionary behaviors within many biological, economic and social systems.     

Behavior of Collective Cooperation Yielded by Two Update Rules in Social Dilemmas:Combining Fermi and Moran Rules

We combine the Fermi and Moran update rules in the spatial prisoner's dilemma and snowdrift games to investigate the behavior of collective cooperation among agents on the regular lattice.Large-scale simulations indicate that,compared to the model with only one update rule,the cooperation behavior exhibits the richer phenomena,and the role of update dynamics should be paid more attention in the evolutionary game theory.Meanwhile,we also observe that the introduction of Moran rule,which needs to consider all neighbor's information,can markedly promote the aggregate cooperation level,that is,randomly selecting the neighbor proportional to its payoff to imitate will facilitate the cooperation among agents.Current results will contribute to further understand the cooperation dynamics and evolutionary behaviors within many biological,economic and social systems.     

Dynamic Evolution with Limited Learning Information on a Small-World Network

This paper investigates the dynamic evolution with limited learninginformation on a small-world network. In the system, the information amongthe interaction players is not very lucid, and the players are not allowedto inspect the profit collected by its neighbors, thus the focal playercannot choose randomly a neighbor or the wealthiest one and compare itspayoff to copy its strategy. It is assumed that the information acquaintedby the player declines in the form of the exponential with the geographicaldistance between the players, and a parameter V is introduced to denote theinspect-ability about the players. It is found that under the hospitableconditions, cooperation increases with the randomness and is inhibited bythe large connectivity for the prisoner's dilemma; however, cooperation ismaximal at the moderate rewiring probability and is chaos with theconnectivity for the snowdrift game. For the two games, the acuminous sightis in favor of the cooperation under the hospitable conditions; whereas, themyopic eyes are advantageous to cooperation and cooperation increases withthe randomness under the hostile condition.     

An Improved Fitness Evaluation Mechanism with Memory in Spatial Prisoner's Dilemma Game on Regular Lattices

To deeply understand the emergence of cooperation in natural,social and economical systems,we present an improved fitness evaluation mechanism with memory in spatial prisoner's dilemma game on regular lattices.In our model,the individual fitness is not only determined by the payoff in the current game round,but also by the payoffs in previous round bins.A tunable parameter,termed as the memory strength(μ),which lies between 0 and 1,is introduced into the model to regulate the ratio of payoffs of current and previous game rounds in the individual fitness calculation.When μ = 0,our model is reduced to the standard prisoner's dilemma game;while μ = 1 represents the case in which the payoff is totally determined by the initial strategies and thus it is far from the realistic ones.Extensive numerical simulations indicate that the memory effect can substantially promote the evolution of cooperation.For μ 1,the stronger the memory effect,the higher the cooperation level,but μ = 1 leads to a pathological state of cooperation,but can partially enhance the cooperation in the very large temptation parameter.The current results are of great significance for us to account for the role of memory effect during the evolution of cooperation among selfish players.     

A 2-stage strategy updating rule promotes cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game

In this study,we propose a spatial prisoner’s dilemma game model with a 2-stage strategy updating rule,and focus on the cooperation behavior of the system.In the first stage,i.e.,the pre-learning stage,a focal player decides whether to update his strategy according to the pre-learning factor β and the payoff difference between himself and the average of his neighbors.If the player makes up his mind to update,he enters into the second stage,i.e.,the learning stage,and adopts a strategy of a randomly selected neighbor according to the standard Fermi updating rule.The simulation results show that the cooperation level has a non-trivial dependence on the pre-learning factor.Generally,the cooperation frequency decreases as the pre-learning factor increases;but a high cooperation level can be obtained in the intermediate region of 3 < β < 1.We then give some explanations via studying the co-action of pre-learning and learning.Our results may sharpen the understanding of the influence of the strategy updating rule on evolutionary games.     

Effect of community structure on coevolutionary dynamics with dynamical linking

We investigate the effect of community structure on the evolution of cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma and the snowdrift game with dynamical linking. We show both analytically and numerically that cooperators are generally more favorable on community networks than on networks without community structure, and in particular, there exists an optimal intermediate value of the model parameter leading to the easiest fixation of cooperators. We show that our results are robust with respect to the initial number of cooperators and are valid for a wide range of the ratio of time scales associated with linking and strategy dynamics. Since community structure is ubiquitous in real social networks, our results may provide new insights into the evolution of cooperation in real world.     

Spatial evolutionary game with bond dilution

In this paper, we study numerically the prisoner’s dilemma game (PDG) and snowdrift game (SG) on a two-dimensional square lattice with both quenched and annealed bond dilution. For quenched bond dilution, the system undergoes a dynamical transition at the critical occupation probability q^∗, which is higher than the bond percolation transition point for a square lattice. In the critical region, the defined order parameter has a scaling form as P_e∼(q−q^∗)^β for q<q^∗ with the critical exponents β=1.42 for PDG and β=1.52 for SG, which differ from those with quenched site dilution. For annealed bond dilution, the system exhibits a distinct cooperative behavior. We find that the cooperation is much enhanced in the range of small payoff parameters on a lattice with slightly annealed bond dilution.     

Effect of Aspiration and Mean Gain on the Emergence of Cooperation in Unidirectional Pedestrian Flow

When more than one pedestrian want to move to the same site,conflicts appear and thus the involved pedestrians play a motion game.In order to describe the emergence of cooperation during the conflict resolving process,an evolutionary cellular automation model is established considering the effect of aspiration and mean gain.In each game,pedestrian may be gentle cooperator or aggressive defector.We propose a set of win-stay-lose-shrift WSLS like rules for updating pedestrian's strategy.These rules prescribe that if the mean gain of current strategy between some given steps is larger than aspiration the strategy keeps,otherwise the strategy changes.The simulation results show that a high level aspiration will lead to more cooperation.With the increment of the statistic length,pedestrians will be more rational in decision making.It is also found that when the aspiration level is small enough and the statistic length is large enough all the pedestrian will turn to defectors.We use the prisoner's dilemma model to explain it.At last we discuss the effect of aspiration on fundamental diagram.     

Cooperative Dynamics in Lattice-Embedded Scale-Free Networks

We investigate cooperative behaviors of lattice-embeddedscale-free networking agents in the prisoner's dilemma game model byemploying two initial strategy distribution mechanisms, which are specificdistribution to the most connected sites (hubs) and random distribution. Ourstudy indicates that the game dynamics crucially depends on the underlyingspatial network structure with different strategy distribution mechanism.The cooperators' specific distribution contributes to an enhanced level ofcooperation in the system compared with random one, and cooperation isrobust to cooperators' specific distribution but fragile to defectors' specific distribution. Especially, unlike the specific case, increasing heterogeneity of network does not always favor the emergence of cooperation under random mechanism. Furthermore, we study the geographical effects and find that the graphically constrained network structure tends to improve the evolution of cooperation in random case and in specific one for a large temptation to defect.     

Effects of Topological Randomness on Cooperation in a Deterministic Prisoner's Dilemma Game

In this work, we consider an evolutionary prisoner's dilemma game on a homogeneous random network with the richest-following strategy adoption rule. By constructing homogeneous random networks from a regular ring graph, we investigate the effects of topological randomness on cooperation. In contrast to the ordinary view that the presence of small amount of shortcuts in ring graphs favors cooperation, we find the cooperation inhibition by weak
topological randomness. The explanations on the observations are presented.     

Prisoner's Dilemma Game on Two Types of Positively Correlated Networks

We study the effects of degree correlations on the evolution of cooperation in the prisoner＇s dilemma game with individuals located on two types of positively correlated networks. It is shown that the positive degree correlation can either promote or inhibit the emergence of cooperation depending on network configurations. Furthermore, we investigate the probability to cooperate as a function of connectivity degree, and find that high-degree individuals generally have a higher tendency to cooperate. Finally, it is found that small-degree individuals usually change their strategy more frequently, and such change is shown to be unfavourable to cooperation for both kinds of networks.     

q-Strategy spatial prisoner?s dilemma game

We generalize the usual two-strategy prisoner?s dilemma game to a multi-strategy game, in which the strategy variable s is allowed to take q different fractional values lying between 0 and 1. The fractional-valued strategies signify that individuals are not absolutely cooperative or defective, instead they can adopt intermediate strategies. Simulation results on 1D and 2D lattices show that, compared with the binary strategy game, the multi-strategy game can sustain cooperation in more stringent defective environments. We give a comprehensive analysis of the distributions of the survived strategies and we compare pairwise the relative strength and weakness of different strategies. It turns out that some intermediate strategies survive the pure defection because they can reduce being exploited and at the same time benefit from the spatial reciprocity effect. Our work may shed some light on the intermediate behaviors in human society.     

Diversity of reproduction rate supports cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game on complex networks

In human societies the probability of strategy adoption from a given person may be affected by the personal features. Now we investigate how an artificially imposed restricted ability to reproduce, overruling ones fitness, affects an evolutionary process. For this purpose we employ the evolutionary prisoner's dilemma game on different complex graphs. Reproduction restrictions can have a facilitative effect on the evolution of cooperation that sets in irrespective of particularities of the interaction network. Indeed, an appropriate fraction of less fertile individuals may lead to full supremacy of cooperators where otherwise defection would be widespread. By studying cooperation levels within the group of individuals having full reproduction capabilities, we reveal that the recent mechanism for the promotion of cooperation is conceptually similar to the one reported previously for scale-free networks. Our results suggest that the diversity in the reproduction capability, related to inherently different attitudes of individuals, can enforce the emergence of cooperative behavior among selfish competitors.