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The Role Of Social Structure In The Maintenance Of Cooperative Regimes

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  • Michael D. Cohen
  • Rick L. Riolo
  • Robert Axelrod

Abstract

We analyze the role of social structure in maintaining cooperation within a population of adaptive agents for whom cooperative behavior may be costly in the short run. We use the example of a collection of agents playing pairwise Prisoner's Dilemma. We call sustained cooperative behavior in such circumstances a `cooperative regime'. We show that social structure, by channeling which agents interact with which others, can sustain cooperative regimes against forces that frequently dissolve them. We show in detail the process through which structured interaction in a population creates a `shadow of the adaptive future', allowing even a small set of cooperative strategies to grow into a cooperative regime, a coherent, self-sustaining entity that is something more than the sum of the pairwise interactions among its members.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael D. Cohen & Rick L. Riolo & Robert Axelrod, 2001. "The Role Of Social Structure In The Maintenance Of Cooperative Regimes," Rationality and Society, , vol. 13(1), pages 5-32, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:13:y:2001:i:1:p:5-32
    DOI: 10.1177/104346301013001001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    9. Gulyás, László, 2007. "Cooperation in networked populations of selfish adaptive agents: Sensitivity to network structure," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 378(1), pages 110-117.
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    13. Howard T. Welser & Eric Gleave & Deborah S. Vaughan, 2007. "Cultural Evolution, Disproportionate Prior Exposure and the Problem of Cooperation," Rationality and Society, , vol. 19(2), pages 171-202, May.
    14. Andrew Leigh, 2006. "Trust, Inequality and Ethnic Heterogeneity," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 82(258), pages 268-280, September.
    15. Stefano Balbi & Carlo Giupponi, 2009. "Reviewing agent-based modelling of socio-ecosystems: a methodology for the analysis of climate change adaptation and sustainability," Working Papers 2009_15, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    16. Kenneth A Frank & Yun-Jia Lo & G Geoffrey Booth & Juha-Pekka Kallunki, 2019. "The market dynamics of socially embedded trading," Rationality and Society, , vol. 31(2), pages 152-181, May.
    17. Matus Halas, 2018. "Balancing Against Threats In Interactions Determined By Distance And Overall Gains," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(05), pages 1-22, August.
    18. Wilson, James & Hill, J. & Kersula, M. & Wilson, C.L. & Whitsel, L. & Yan, L. & Acheson, J. & Chen, Y. & Cleaver, C. & Congdon, C. & Hayden, A. & Hayes, P. & Johnson, T. & Morehead, G. & Steneck, R. &, 2013. "Costly information and the evolution of self-organization in a small, complex economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(S), pages 76-93.
    19. Jenna Bednar & Scott Page, 2007. "Can Game(s) Theory Explain Culture?," Rationality and Society, , vol. 19(1), pages 65-97, February.
    20. Caterina Cruciani & Anna Moretti & Paolo Pellizzari, 2017. "Dynamic patterns in similarity-based cooperation: an agent-based investigation," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 12(1), pages 121-141, April.
    21. Yamamoto, Hitoshi & Okada, Isamu, 2016. "How to keep punishment to maintain cooperation: Introducing social vaccine," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 443(C), pages 526-536.
    22. Mikhail Kunavin & Tatiana Kozitsina & Mikhail Myagkov & Irina Kozhevnikova & Mikhail Pankov & Ludmila Sokolova, 2021. "Bioelectrical brain activity can predict prosocial behavior," Papers 2105.14587, arXiv.org.
    23. Shijun Wang & Máté S Szalay & Changshui Zhang & Peter Csermely, 2008. "Learning and Innovative Elements of Strategy Adoption Rules Expand Cooperative Network Topologies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(4), pages 1-9, April.

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