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Network topology and movement cost, not updating mechanism, determine the evolution of cooperation in mobile structured populations

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  • Diogo L Pires
  • Igor V Erovenko
  • Mark Broom

Abstract

Evolutionary models are used to study the self-organisation of collective action, often incorporating population structure due to its ubiquitous presence and long-known impact on emerging phenomena. We investigate the evolution of multiplayer cooperation in mobile structured populations, where individuals move strategically on networks and interact with those they meet in groups of variable size. We find that the evolution of multiplayer cooperation primarily depends on the network topology and movement cost while using different stochastic update rules seldom influences evolutionary outcomes. Cooperation robustly co-evolves with movement on complete networks and structure has a partially detrimental effect on it. These findings contrast an established principle from evolutionary graph theory that cooperation can only emerge under some update rules and if the average degree is lower than the reward-to-cost ratio and the network far from complete. We find that group-dependent movement erases the locality of interactions, suppresses the impact of evolutionary structural viscosity on the fitness of individuals, and leads to assortative behaviour that is much more powerful than viscosity in promoting cooperation. We analyse the differences remaining between update rules through a comparison of evolutionary outcomes and fixation probabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Diogo L Pires & Igor V Erovenko & Mark Broom, 2023. "Network topology and movement cost, not updating mechanism, determine the evolution of cooperation in mobile structured populations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-29, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0289366
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289366
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mark Broom & Igor V. Erovenko & Jan Rychtář, 2021. "Modelling Evolution in Structured Populations Involving Multiplayer Interactions," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 270-293, June.
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    3. Dorogovtsev, S.N. & Mendes, J.F.F., 2003. "Evolution of Networks: From Biological Nets to the Internet and WWW," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198515906, Decembrie.
    4. Igor V. Erovenko, 2019. "The Evolution of Cooperation in One-Dimensional Mobile Populations with Deterministic Dispersal," Games, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, January.
    5. Hisashi Ohtsuki & Christoph Hauert & Erez Lieberman & Martin A. Nowak, 2006. "A simple rule for the evolution of cooperation on graphs and social networks," Nature, Nature, vol. 441(7092), pages 502-505, May.
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