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Evolution of Cooperation: Combining Kin Selection and Reciprocal Altruism into Matrix Games with Social Dilemmas

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  • Som B Ale
  • Joel S Brown
  • Amy T Sullivan

Abstract

Darwinian selection should preclude cooperation from evolving; yet cooperation is widespread among organisms. We show how kin selection and reciprocal altruism can promote cooperation in diverse 2×2 matrix games (prisoner’s dilemma, snowdrift, and hawk-dove). We visualize kin selection as non-random interactions with like-strategies interacting more than by chance. Reciprocal altruism emerges from iterated games where players have some likelihood of knowing the identity of other players. This perspective allows us to combine kin selection and reciprocal altruism into a general matrix game model. Both mechanisms operating together should influence the evolution of cooperation. In the absence of kin selection, reciprocal altruism may be an evolutionarily stable strategy but is unable to invade a population of non-co-operators. Similarly, it may take a high degree of relatedness to permit cooperation to supplant non-cooperation. Together, a little bit of reciprocal altruism can, however, greatly reduce the threshold at which kin selection promotes cooperation, and vice-versa. To properly frame applications and tests of cooperation, empiricists should consider kin selection and reciprocal altruism together rather than as alternatives, and they should be applied to a broader class of social dilemmas than just the prisoner’s dilemma.

Suggested Citation

  • Som B Ale & Joel S Brown & Amy T Sullivan, 2013. "Evolution of Cooperation: Combining Kin Selection and Reciprocal Altruism into Matrix Games with Social Dilemmas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-8, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0063761
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063761
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    1. Martin A. Nowak & Corina E. Tarnita & Edward O. Wilson, 2010. "The evolution of eusociality," Nature, Nature, vol. 466(7310), pages 1057-1062, August.
    2. Tim Clutton-Brock, 2009. "Cooperation between non-kin in animal societies," Nature, Nature, vol. 462(7269), pages 51-57, November.
    3. Samir Okasha, 2010. "Altruism researchers must cooperate," Nature, Nature, vol. 467(7316), pages 653-655, October.
    4. Franziska Michor & Martin A. Nowak, 2002. "The good, the bad and the lonely," Nature, Nature, vol. 419(6908), pages 677-679, October.
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    2. Giuseppe Attanasi & Kene Boun My & Nikolaos Georgantzís & Miguel Ginés, 2019. "Strategic Ethics: Altruism without the Other-Regarding Confound," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 70(6), pages 967-998.
    3. Bayer, Péter & Brown, Joel & Stankova, Katerina, 2017. "A Two-Phenotype Model of Immune Evasion by Cancer Cells," Research Memorandum 029, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).
    4. Frederik Booysen & Sevias Guvuriro & Alistair Munro & Tshepo Moloi & Celeste Campher, 2018. "Putting a premium on altruism: A social discounting experiment with South African university students," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, April.

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