The Evolution of Altruistic Rationality Provides a Solution to Social Dilemmas via Rational Reciprocity

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Salahshour, Mohammad, Couzin, Iain D.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Salahshour, Mohammad
Couzin, Iain D.
author_facet Salahshour, Mohammad
Couzin, Iain D.
contents Decades of scientific inquiry have sought to understand how evolution fosters cooperation, a concept seemingly at odds with the belief that evolution should produce rational, self-interested individuals. Most previous work has focused on the evolution of cooperation among boundedly rational individuals whose decisions are governed by behavioral rules that do not need to be rational. Here, using an evolutionary model, we study how altruism can evolve in a community of rational agents and promote cooperation. We show that in both well-mixed and structured populations, a population of objectively rational agents is readily invaded by mutant individuals who make rational decisions but evolve a distorted (i.e., subjective) perception of their payoffs. This promotes behavioral diversity and gives rise to the evolution of rational, other-regarding agents who naturally solve all the known strategic problems of two-person, two-strategy games by perceiving their games as pure coordination games.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_00858
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Evolution of Altruistic Rationality Provides a Solution to Social Dilemmas via Rational Reciprocity
Salahshour, Mohammad
Couzin, Iain D.
Populations and Evolution
Computer Science and Game Theory
Physics and Society
Decades of scientific inquiry have sought to understand how evolution fosters cooperation, a concept seemingly at odds with the belief that evolution should produce rational, self-interested individuals. Most previous work has focused on the evolution of cooperation among boundedly rational individuals whose decisions are governed by behavioral rules that do not need to be rational. Here, using an evolutionary model, we study how altruism can evolve in a community of rational agents and promote cooperation. We show that in both well-mixed and structured populations, a population of objectively rational agents is readily invaded by mutant individuals who make rational decisions but evolve a distorted (i.e., subjective) perception of their payoffs. This promotes behavioral diversity and gives rise to the evolution of rational, other-regarding agents who naturally solve all the known strategic problems of two-person, two-strategy games by perceiving their games as pure coordination games.
title The Evolution of Altruistic Rationality Provides a Solution to Social Dilemmas via Rational Reciprocity
topic Populations and Evolution
Computer Science and Game Theory
Physics and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00858