High Cost of Survival Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation
Living organisms expend energy to sustain survival, a process which is reliant on consuming resources—termed here as the “cost of survival”. In the Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD), a classic model of social interaction, individual payoffs depend on choices to either provide benefits to others at a personal...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Games |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/16/1/4 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849719689937158144 |
|---|---|
| author | Oleg Smirnov |
| author_facet | Oleg Smirnov |
| author_sort | Oleg Smirnov |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Living organisms expend energy to sustain survival, a process which is reliant on consuming resources—termed here as the “cost of survival”. In the Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD), a classic model of social interaction, individual payoffs depend on choices to either provide benefits to others at a personal cost (cooperate) or exploit others to maximize personal gain (defect). We demonstrate that in an iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma (IPD), a simple “Always Cooperate” (ALLC) strategy evolves and remains evolutionarily stable when the cost of survival is sufficiently high, meaning exploited cooperators have a low probability of survival. We derive a rule for the evolutionary stability of cooperation, <b><i>x/z ></i></b><i>T/R</i>, where <i>x</i> represents the duration of mutual cooperation, <i>z</i> the duration of exploitation, <i>T</i> the defector’s free-riding payoff, and <i>R</i> the payoff for mutual cooperation. This finding suggests that higher survival costs can enhance social welfare by selecting for cooperative strategies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b5e18e69605744e79014841b624aaa17 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2073-4336 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Games |
| spelling | doaj-art-b5e18e69605744e79014841b624aaa172025-08-20T03:12:05ZengMDPI AGGames2073-43362025-01-01161410.3390/g16010004High Cost of Survival Promotes the Evolution of CooperationOleg Smirnov0Department of Political Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USALiving organisms expend energy to sustain survival, a process which is reliant on consuming resources—termed here as the “cost of survival”. In the Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD), a classic model of social interaction, individual payoffs depend on choices to either provide benefits to others at a personal cost (cooperate) or exploit others to maximize personal gain (defect). We demonstrate that in an iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma (IPD), a simple “Always Cooperate” (ALLC) strategy evolves and remains evolutionarily stable when the cost of survival is sufficiently high, meaning exploited cooperators have a low probability of survival. We derive a rule for the evolutionary stability of cooperation, <b><i>x/z ></i></b><i>T/R</i>, where <i>x</i> represents the duration of mutual cooperation, <i>z</i> the duration of exploitation, <i>T</i> the defector’s free-riding payoff, and <i>R</i> the payoff for mutual cooperation. This finding suggests that higher survival costs can enhance social welfare by selecting for cooperative strategies.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/16/1/4evolution of cooperationprisoner’s dilemmaaltruismsurvivalreciprocity |
| spellingShingle | Oleg Smirnov High Cost of Survival Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation Games evolution of cooperation prisoner’s dilemma altruism survival reciprocity |
| title | High Cost of Survival Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation |
| title_full | High Cost of Survival Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation |
| title_fullStr | High Cost of Survival Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation |
| title_full_unstemmed | High Cost of Survival Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation |
| title_short | High Cost of Survival Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation |
| title_sort | high cost of survival promotes the evolution of cooperation |
| topic | evolution of cooperation prisoner’s dilemma altruism survival reciprocity |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/16/1/4 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT olegsmirnov highcostofsurvivalpromotestheevolutionofcooperation |