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How to keep punishment to maintain cooperation: Introducing social vaccine

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  • Yamamoto, Hitoshi
  • Okada, Isamu

Abstract

Although there is much support for the punishment system as a sophisticated approach to resolving social dilemmas, more than a few researchers have also pointed out the limitations of such an approach. Second-order free riding is a serious issue facing the punishment system. Various pioneering works have suggested that an anti-social behavior or noise stemming from a mutation may, surprisingly, be helpful for avoiding second-order freeloaders. In this work, we show through mathematical analysis and an agent-based simulation of a model extending the meta-norms game that the coercive introduction of a small number of non-cooperators can maintain a cooperative regime robustly. This paradoxical idea was inspired by the effect of a vaccine, which is a weakened pathogen injected into a human body to create antibodies and ward off infection by that pathogen. Our expectation is that the coercive introduction of a few defectors, i.e., a social vaccine, will help maintain a highly cooperative regime because it will ensure that the punishment system works.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:443:y:2016:i:c:p:526-536
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2015.08.053
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    Cited by:

    1. Fujio Toriumi & Hitoshi Yamamoto & Isamu Okada, 2020. "A belief in rewards accelerates cooperation on consumer-generated media," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 19-31, April.
    2. Cheng, Fei & Chen, Tong & Chen, Qiao, 2020. "Rewards based on public loyalty program promote cooperation in public goods game," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 378(C).
    3. Cui, Guang-Hai & Wang, Zhen & Ren, Jian-Kang & Lu, Kun & Li, Ming-Chu, 2016. "Promotion of cooperation induced by discriminators in the spatial multi-player donor–recipient game," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 462(C), pages 92-103.
    4. Isamu Okada, 2020. "A Review of Theoretical Studies on Indirect Reciprocity," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Hitoshi Yamamoto & Takahisa Suzuki, 2018. "Effects of beliefs about sanctions on promoting cooperation in a public goods game," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-6, December.

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