Eliciting Fairness in N-Player Network Games through Degree-Based Role Assignment

From social contracts to climate agreements, individuals engage in groups that must collectively reach decisions with varying levels of equality and fairness. These dilemmas also pervade distributed artificial intelligence, in domains such as automated negotiation, conflict resolution, or resource a...

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Main Authors: Andreia Sofia Teixeira, Francisco C. Santos, Alexandre P. Francisco, Fernando P. Santos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2021-01-01
Series:Complexity
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6851477
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author Andreia Sofia Teixeira
Francisco C. Santos
Alexandre P. Francisco
Fernando P. Santos
author_facet Andreia Sofia Teixeira
Francisco C. Santos
Alexandre P. Francisco
Fernando P. Santos
author_sort Andreia Sofia Teixeira
collection DOAJ
description From social contracts to climate agreements, individuals engage in groups that must collectively reach decisions with varying levels of equality and fairness. These dilemmas also pervade distributed artificial intelligence, in domains such as automated negotiation, conflict resolution, or resource allocation, which aim to engineer self-organized group behaviors. As evidenced by the well-known Ultimatum Game, where a Proposer has to divide a resource with a Responder, payoff-maximizing outcomes are frequently at odds with fairness. Eliciting equality in populations of self-regarding agents requires judicious interventions. Here, we use knowledge about agents’ social networks to implement fairness mechanisms, in the context of Multiplayer Ultimatum Games. We focus on network-based role assignment and show that attributing the role of Proposer to low-connected nodes increases the fairness levels in a population. We evaluate the effectiveness of low-degree Proposer assignment considering networks with different average connectivities, group sizes, and group voting rules when accepting proposals (e.g., majority or unanimity). We further show that low-degree Proposer assignment is efficient, in optimizing not only individuals’ offers but also the average payoff level in the population. Finally, we show that stricter voting rules (i.e., imposing an accepting consensus as a requirement for collectives to accept a proposal) attenuate the unfairness that results from situations where high-degree nodes (hubs) play as Proposers. Our results suggest new routes to use role assignment and voting mechanisms to prevent unfair behaviors from spreading on complex networks.
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spelling doaj-art-35796538346e4c88a4b2c40dbffd51402025-08-20T02:24:08ZengWileyComplexity1076-27871099-05262021-01-01202110.1155/2021/68514776851477Eliciting Fairness in N-Player Network Games through Degree-Based Role AssignmentAndreia Sofia Teixeira0Francisco C. Santos1Alexandre P. Francisco2Fernando P. Santos3Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, PortugalINESC-ID and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, PortugalINESC-ID and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, PortugalATP-Group, IST-Taguspark, Porto Salvo, PortugalFrom social contracts to climate agreements, individuals engage in groups that must collectively reach decisions with varying levels of equality and fairness. These dilemmas also pervade distributed artificial intelligence, in domains such as automated negotiation, conflict resolution, or resource allocation, which aim to engineer self-organized group behaviors. As evidenced by the well-known Ultimatum Game, where a Proposer has to divide a resource with a Responder, payoff-maximizing outcomes are frequently at odds with fairness. Eliciting equality in populations of self-regarding agents requires judicious interventions. Here, we use knowledge about agents’ social networks to implement fairness mechanisms, in the context of Multiplayer Ultimatum Games. We focus on network-based role assignment and show that attributing the role of Proposer to low-connected nodes increases the fairness levels in a population. We evaluate the effectiveness of low-degree Proposer assignment considering networks with different average connectivities, group sizes, and group voting rules when accepting proposals (e.g., majority or unanimity). We further show that low-degree Proposer assignment is efficient, in optimizing not only individuals’ offers but also the average payoff level in the population. Finally, we show that stricter voting rules (i.e., imposing an accepting consensus as a requirement for collectives to accept a proposal) attenuate the unfairness that results from situations where high-degree nodes (hubs) play as Proposers. Our results suggest new routes to use role assignment and voting mechanisms to prevent unfair behaviors from spreading on complex networks.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6851477
spellingShingle Andreia Sofia Teixeira
Francisco C. Santos
Alexandre P. Francisco
Fernando P. Santos
Eliciting Fairness in N-Player Network Games through Degree-Based Role Assignment
Complexity
title Eliciting Fairness in N-Player Network Games through Degree-Based Role Assignment
title_full Eliciting Fairness in N-Player Network Games through Degree-Based Role Assignment
title_fullStr Eliciting Fairness in N-Player Network Games through Degree-Based Role Assignment
title_full_unstemmed Eliciting Fairness in N-Player Network Games through Degree-Based Role Assignment
title_short Eliciting Fairness in N-Player Network Games through Degree-Based Role Assignment
title_sort eliciting fairness in n player network games through degree based role assignment
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2021/6851477
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