IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chsofr/v199y2025ip3s0960077925008094.html

Effective utility-driven spatial segregation and its impact on cooperation evolution: A cultural weight-dependent perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Jinjin
  • Sun, Jingjing
  • Chen, Yuyou

Abstract

How cooperation evolves in culturally diverse populations remains a fundamental question. Individual differences in concern for others’ welfare can shape social interactions, yet their role in driving large-scale social patterns is not fully understood. Here, we propose a spatial evolutionary game model where individuals possess an evolvable ”cultural weight” that dictates how they value their own versus their neighbors’ payoffs. We demonstrate that this utility-evaluation mechanism spontaneously drives significant spatial segregation, where like-minded individuals cluster together. This self-organized structure, in turn, powerfully influences cooperation through a ”boundary effect”: individuals at the interfaces of different cultural clusters exhibit significantly lower cooperation rates than those in homogeneous group interiors. Our findings reveal that subjective utility evaluation based on cultural differences is a key driver of social pattern formation, highlighting a complex feedback loop between individual culture, spatial structure, and the evolution of cooperation.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Jinjin & Sun, Jingjing & Chen, Yuyou, 2025. "Effective utility-driven spatial segregation and its impact on cooperation evolution: A cultural weight-dependent perspective," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 199(P3).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:199:y:2025:i:p3:s0960077925008094
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2025.116796
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960077925008094
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chaos.2025.116796?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Yunong & Belmonte, Andrew & Griffin, Christopher, 2021. "Imitation of success leads to cost of living mediated fairness in the Ultimatum Game," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 583(C).
    2. Genki Ichinose & Masaya Saito & Hiroki Sayama & Hugues Bersini, 2015. "Transitions Between Homophilic and Heterophilic Modes of Cooperation," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18(4), pages 1-3.
    3. Tania Singer & Ben Seymour & John P. O'Doherty & Klaas E. Stephan & Raymond J. Dolan & Chris D. Frith, 2006. "Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others," Nature, Nature, vol. 439(7075), pages 466-469, January.
    4. Jorgen W. Weibull, 1997. "Evolutionary Game Theory," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262731215, December.
    5. Francisco C. Santos & Marta D. Santos & Jorge M. Pacheco, 2008. "Social diversity promotes the emergence of cooperation in public goods games," Nature, Nature, vol. 454(7201), pages 213-216, July.
    6. Hana Krakovsk'a & Rudolf Hanel, 2025. "More Than Opinions: The Role of Values in Shaping Fairness and Status in the Ultimatum Game within Structured Societies," Papers 2505.07060, arXiv.org.
    7. Benko, Tina P. & Pi, Bin & Li, Qin & Feng, Minyu & Perc, Matjaž & Blažun Vošner, Helena, 2025. "Evolutionary games for cooperation in open data management," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 496(C).
    8. Flores, Lucas S. & Han, The Anh, 2024. "Evolution of commitment in the spatial public goods game through institutional incentives," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 473(C).
    9. Ernst Fehr & Klaus M. Schmidt, 1999. "A Theory of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 817-868.
    10. Cimpeanu, Theodor & Di Stefano, Alessandro & Perret, Cedric & Han, The Anh, 2023. "Social diversity reduces the complexity and cost of fostering fairness," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    11. repec:fth:iniesr:487 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, 2003. "The nature of human altruism," Nature, Nature, vol. 425(6960), pages 785-791, October.
    13. Cardinot, Marcos & Griffith, Josephine & O’Riordan, Colm, 2018. "A further analysis of the role of heterogeneity in coevolutionary spatial games," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 493(C), pages 116-124.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xie, Kai & Szolnoki, Attila, 2025. "Reputation in public goods cooperation under double Q-learning protocol," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    2. Christian Hilbe & Moshe Hoffman & Martin A. Nowak, 2015. "Cooperate without Looking in a Non-Repeated Game," Games, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-15, September.
    3. Kurt A. Ackermann & Ryan O. Murphy, 2019. "Explaining Cooperative Behavior in Public Goods Games: How Preferences and Beliefs Affect Contribution Levels," Games, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-34, March.
    4. Yen-Sheng Chiang, 2015. "Good Samaritans in Networks: An Experiment on How Networks Influence Egalitarian Sharing and the Evolution of Inequality," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-13, June.
    5. Mengyuan Zhou, 2022. "Does the Source of Inheritance Matter in Bequest Attitudes? Evidence from Japan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 867-887, December.
    6. Sylvie Thoron, 2016. "Morality Beyond Social Preferences: Smithian Sympathy, Social Neuroscience and the Nature of Social Consciousness [La moralité au delà des préférences sociales. La sympathie Smithienne, les neurosciences sociales et la nature d’une conscience soci," Post-Print hal-01645043, HAL.
    7. Mengyuan Zhou, 2019. "The Effect of the Source of Inheritance on Bequest Attitudes: Evidence from Japan," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2019-018, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    8. Calabuig, Vicente & Fatas, Enrique & Olcina, Gonzalo & Rodriguez-Lara, Ismael, 2016. "Carry a big stick, or no stick at all," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 153-171.
    9. Jonathan D. Cohen, 2005. "The Vulcanization of the Human Brain: A Neural Perspective on Interactions Between Cognition and Emotion," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 3-24, Fall.
    10. Ugo Merlone & Daren Sandbank & Ferenc Szidarovszky, 2013. "Equilibria analysis in social dilemma games with Skinnerian agents," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 12(2), pages 219-233, November.
    11. Müller, Stephan, 2014. "The evolution of inequality aversion in a simplified game of life," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 219, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    12. Gächter, Simon & Herrmann, Benedikt, 2011. "The limits of self-governance when cooperators get punished: Experimental evidence from urban and rural Russia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 193-210, February.
    13. Weibull, Jörgen & Salomonsson, Marcus, 2005. "Natural selection and social preferences," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 588, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 27 Sep 2005.
    14. Bartoš, Vojtěch, 2021. "Seasonal scarcity and sharing norms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 303-316.
    15. Cárdenas Juan Camilo & Casas-Casas Andrés & Méndez Nathalie Méndez, 2014. "The Hidden Face of Justice: Fairness, Discrimination and Distribution in Transitional Justice Processes," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 33-60, January.
    16. M. Christian Lehmann, 2022. "Fairness preferences as a cause of inefficient war," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 6(1), pages 33-36, December.
    17. Sun, Xingping & Feng, Kaiyu & Kang, Hongwei & Shen, Yong & Chen, Qingyi, 2026. "Adaptive migration guided by reputation-pheromone dynamics in spatial games," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 202(P1).
    18. Li, Yixiao & Jin, Xiaogang & Su, Xianchuang & Kong, Fansheng & Peng, Chengbin, 2010. "Cooperation and charity in spatial public goods game under different strategy update rules," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(5), pages 1090-1098.
    19. Xiaofeng Wang & Xiaojie Chen & Long Wang, 2020. "Evolution of egalitarian social norm by resource management," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, January.
    20. Tünde Paál & Tamás Bereczkei, 2015. "Punishment as a Means of Competition: Implications for Strong Reciprocity Theory," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-14, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:199:y:2025:i:p3:s0960077925008094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thayer, Thomas R. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/chaos-solitons-and-fractals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.