Population Fluctuation Promotes Cooperation in Networks

We consider the problem of explaining the emergence and evolution of cooperation in dynamic network-structured populations. Building on seminal work by Poncela et al., which shows how cooperation (in one-shot prisoner’s dilemma) is supported in growing populations by an evolutionary preferential attachment (EPA) model, we investigate the effect of fluctuations in the population size. We find that a fluctuating model – based on repeated population growth and truncation – is more robust than Poncela et al.’s in that cooperation flourishes for a wider variety of initial conditions. In terms of both the temptation to defect, and the types of strategies present in the founder network, the fluctuating population is found to lead more securely to cooperation. Further, we find that this model will also support the emergence of cooperation from pre-existing non-cooperative random networks. This model, like Poncela et al.’s, does not require agents to have memory, recognition of other agents, or other cognitive abilities, and so may suggest a more general explanation of the emergence of cooperation in early evolutionary transitions, than mechanisms such as kin selection, direct and indirect reciprocity.

[1]  F. C. Santos,et al.  A new route to the evolution of cooperation , 2006, Journal of evolutionary biology.

[2]  F. C. Santos,et al.  Evolutionary games in self-organizing populations , 2008 .

[3]  Elizabeth Pennisi,et al.  How Did Cooperative Behavior Evolve? , 2005, Science.

[4]  G. Szabó,et al.  Impact of aging on the evolution of cooperation in the spatial prisoner's dilemma game. , 2009, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[5]  W. Hamilton,et al.  The evolution of cooperation. , 1984, Science.

[6]  M. Nowak,et al.  Evolutionary games and spatial chaos , 1992, Nature.

[7]  Yamir Moreno,et al.  Growing Networks Driven by the Evolutionary Prisoner’s Dilemma Game , 2012 .

[8]  B. Crespi.  The evolution of social behavior in microorganisms. , 2001, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[9]  Duc A. Tran,et al.  Fitness-Based Generative Models for Power-Law Networks , 2012 .

[10]  Eörs Szathmáry,et al.  The Major Transitions in Evolution , 1997 .

[11]  Francisco C. Santos,et al.  Cooperation Prevails When Individuals Adjust Their Social Ties , 2006, PLoS Comput. Biol..

[12]  W. Strange.  Evolution of language. , 1984, JAMA.

[13]  Fabian J. Theis,et al.  Handbook of Optimization in Complex Networks , 2011 .

[14]  A Griffin,et al.  Cooperation, control, and concession in meerkat groups. , 2001, Science.

[15]  Arne Traulsen,et al.  Coevolution of strategy and structure in complex networks with dynamical linking. , 2006, Physical review letters.

[16]  F. Waal,et al.  Capuchins do cooperate: the advantage of an intuitive task , 2000, Animal Behaviour.

[17]  M. Nowak.  Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation , 2006, Science.

[18]  W. Koenig,et al.  Reproductive Sociality. (Book Reviews: Cooperative Breeding in Birds. Long-Term Studies of Ecology and Behavior.) , 1990 .

[19]  Attila Szolnoki,et al.  Making new connections towards cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game , 2008, 0811.4372.

[20]  Attila Szolnoki,et al.  Coevolutionary Games - A Mini Review , 2009, Biosyst..

[21]  A. Sanchez,et al.  Co-evolution of strategies and update rules in the prisoner's dilemma game on complex networks , 2010, 1007.3626.

[22]  C. Brooke Worth,et al.  The Insect Societies , 1973 .

[23]  Y. Yanagi,et al.  Cooperation: another mechanism of viral evolution. , 2013, Trends in microbiology.

[24]  G. Szabó,et al.  Evolutionary games on graphs , 2006, cond-mat/0607344.

[25]  S. Bornholdt,et al.  Coevolutionary games on networks. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[26]  A. Turner,et al.  Cooperative Breeding in Birds. Long-term Studies of Ecology and Behaviour, Peter B. Stacey, Walter D. Koenig (Eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1990), xviii , 1991 .

[27]  A. Grafen.  Natural selection, kin selection and group selection [Polistes fuscatus, wasps] , 1984 .

[28]  R. Trivers.  The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism , 1971, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[29]  Genki Ichinose,et al.  Robustness of cooperation on scale-free networks under continuous topological change , 2013, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[30]  M. Milinski.  TIT FOR TAT in sticklebacks and the evolution of cooperation , 1987, Nature.

[31]  W. Hamilton.  The genetical evolution of social behaviour. II. , 1964, Journal of theoretical biology.

[32]  C. Barnard.  Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 2nd edition, J.R. Krebs, N.B. Davies (Eds.). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1984), xi , 1985 .

[33]  Yamir Moreno,et al.  Complex Cooperative Networks from Evolutionary Preferential Attachment , 2008, PloS one.

[34]  M. Perc.  Evolution of cooperation on scale-free networks subject to error and attack , 2009, 0902.4661.

[35]  Víctor M Eguíluz,et al.  Cooperation, social networks, and the emergence of leadership in a prisoner's dilemma with adaptive local interactions. , 2005, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[36]  W. J. Conover,et al.  Practical Nonparametric Statistics , 1972 .

[37]  W. Hamilton.  The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I. , 1964, Journal of theoretical biology.

[38]  M. Nowak,et al.  Non-commercial Research and Educational Use including without Limitation Use in Instruction at Your Institution, Sending It to Specific Colleagues That You Know, and Providing a Copy to Your Institution's Administrator. All Other Uses, Reproduction and Distribution, including without Limitation Comm , 2022 .