Suppressing defection by increasing temptation: the impact of smart cooperators on a social dilemma situation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lee, Hsuan-Wei, Cleveland, Colin, Szolnoki, Attila
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Lee, Hsuan-Wei
Cleveland, Colin
Szolnoki, Attila
author_facet Lee, Hsuan-Wei
Cleveland, Colin
Szolnoki, Attila
contents In a social dilemma situation, where individual and collective interests are in conflict, it sounds a reasonable assumption that the presence of super or smart players, who simultaneously punish defection and reward cooperation without allowing exploitation, could solve the basic problem. The behavior of such a multi-strategy system, however, is more subtle than it is firstly anticipated. When exploring the complete parameter space, we find that the emergence of cyclic dominance among strategies is rather common, which results in several counter-intuitive phenomena. For example, the defection level can be lowered at higher temptation, or weaker punishment provides better conditions for smart players. Our study indicates that smart cooperators can unexpectedly thrive under high temptation, emphasizing the complexity of strategic interactions. This study suggests that the principles governing these interactions can be applied to other moral behaviors, such as truth-telling and honesty, providing valuable insights for future research in multi-agent systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_17268
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Suppressing defection by increasing temptation: the impact of smart cooperators on a social dilemma situation
Lee, Hsuan-Wei
Cleveland, Colin
Szolnoki, Attila
Physics and Society
Dynamical Systems
Chaotic Dynamics
In a social dilemma situation, where individual and collective interests are in conflict, it sounds a reasonable assumption that the presence of super or smart players, who simultaneously punish defection and reward cooperation without allowing exploitation, could solve the basic problem. The behavior of such a multi-strategy system, however, is more subtle than it is firstly anticipated. When exploring the complete parameter space, we find that the emergence of cyclic dominance among strategies is rather common, which results in several counter-intuitive phenomena. For example, the defection level can be lowered at higher temptation, or weaker punishment provides better conditions for smart players. Our study indicates that smart cooperators can unexpectedly thrive under high temptation, emphasizing the complexity of strategic interactions. This study suggests that the principles governing these interactions can be applied to other moral behaviors, such as truth-telling and honesty, providing valuable insights for future research in multi-agent systems.
title Suppressing defection by increasing temptation: the impact of smart cooperators on a social dilemma situation
topic Physics and Society
Dynamical Systems
Chaotic Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.17268