IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jgames/v8y2017i3p35-d108724.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cooperation in Public Goods Games: Stay, But Not for Too Long

Author

Listed:
  • Lucas Wardil

    (Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Caixa Postal 702, Belo Horizonte CEP 30161-970, MG, Brazil)

  • Marco Antonio Amaral

    (Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 15051, Porto Alegre CEP 91501-970, RS, Brazil)

Abstract

Cooperation in repeated public goods game is hardly achieved, unless contingent behavior is present. Surely, if mechanisms promoting positive assortment between cooperators are present, then cooperators may beat defectors, because cooperators would collect greater payoffs. In the context of evolutionary game theory, individuals that always cooperate cannot win the competition against defectors in well-mixed populations. Here, we study the evolution of a population where fitness is obtained in repeated public goods games and players have a fixed probability of playing the next round. As a result, the group size decreases during the game. The population is well-mixed and there are only two available strategies: always cooperate (ALLC) or always defect (ALLD). Through numerical calculation and analytical approximations we show that cooperation can emerge if the players stay playing the game, but not for too long. The essential mechanism is the interaction between the transition from strong to weak altruism, as the group size decreases, and the existence of an upper limit to the number of rounds representing limited time availability.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucas Wardil & Marco Antonio Amaral, 2017. "Cooperation in Public Goods Games: Stay, But Not for Too Long," Games, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-10, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:8:y:2017:i:3:p:35-:d:108724
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/8/3/35/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4336/8/3/35/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boun My, Kene & Chalvignac, Benoît, 2010. "Voluntary participation and cooperation in a collective-good game," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 705-718, August.
    2. Marco Alberto Javarone & Giuliano Armano, 2013. "Emergence of acronyms in a community of language users," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 86(11), pages 1-9, November.
    3. Francisco C. Santos & Marta D. Santos & Jorge M. Pacheco, 2008. "Social diversity promotes the emergence of cooperation in public goods games," Nature, Nature, vol. 454(7201), pages 213-216, July.
    4. Dong Xiao-yuan & Dow Gregory K., 1993. "Does Free Exit Reduce Shirking in Production Teams?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 472-484, June.
    5. Marco Alberto Javarone, 2016. "Statistical physics of the spatial Prisoner’s Dilemma with memory-aware agents," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 89(2), pages 1-6, February.
    6. James Andreoni & William Harbaugh & Lise Vesterlund, 2003. "The Carrot or the Stick: Rewards, Punishments, and Cooperation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 893-902, June.
    7. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, 2003. "The nature of human altruism," Nature, Nature, vol. 425(6960), pages 785-791, October.
    8. Giangiacomo Bravo & Flaminio Squazzoni, 2013. "Exit, Punishment and Rewards in Commons Dilemmas: An Experimental Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(8), pages 1-9, August.
    9. Marco Alberto Javarone, 2016. "Statistical physics of the spatial Prisoner’s Dilemma with memory-aware agents," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 89(2), pages 1-6, February.
    10. Lucas Wardil & Christoph Hauert, 2016. "Targeted Cooperative Actions Shape Social Networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, January.
    11. Ewart A. C. Thomas & Marcus W. Feldman, 1988. "Behavior-Dependent Contexts for Repeated Plays of the Prisoner's Dilemma," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 32(4), pages 699-726, December.
    12. Henry Hamburger & Melvin Guyer & John Fox, 1975. "Group Size and Cooperation," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 19(3), pages 503-531, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alessandra F. Lütz & Marco A. Amaral & Lucas Wardil, 2021. "Acculturation and the evolution of cooperation in spatial public goods games," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 94(11), pages 1-11, November.
    2. Amaral, Marco A. & Oliveira, Marcelo M. de & Javarone, Marco A., 2021. "An epidemiological model with voluntary quarantine strategies governed by evolutionary game dynamics," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Zhong, Li-Xin & Xu, Wen-Juan & Chen, Rong-Da & He, Yun-Xin & Qiu, Tian & Ren, Fei & Shi, Yong-Dong & Zhong, Chen-Yang, 2020. "Multiple learning mechanisms promote cooperation in public goods games with project selection," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Flores, Lucas S. & Amaral, Marco A. & Vainstein, Mendeli H. & Fernandes, Heitor C.M., 2022. "Cooperation in regular lattices," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paolo Crosetto & Alexia Gaudeul & Gerhard Riener, 2012. "Partnerships, Imperfect Monitoring and Outside Options: Theory and Experimental Evidence," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-052, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    2. Gaudeul, Alexia & Crosetto, Paolo & Riener, Gerhard, 2017. "Better stuck together or free to go? Of the stability of cooperation when individuals have outside options," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 99-112.
    3. Shu, Feng & Liu, Yaojun & Liu, Xingwen & Zhou, Xiaobing, 2019. "Memory-based conformity enhances cooperation in social dilemmas," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 346(C), pages 480-490.
    4. Serge Galam & Marco Alberto Javarone, 2016. "Modeling Radicalization Phenomena in Heterogeneous Populations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-15, May.
    5. Christian Hilbe & Moshe Hoffman & Martin A. Nowak, 2015. "Cooperate without Looking in a Non-Repeated Game," Games, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-15, September.
    6. Takahara, Akihiro & Sakiyama, Tomoko, 2023. "Twisted strategy may enhance the evolution of cooperation in spatial prisoner’s dilemma," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 629(C).
    7. Zhang, Liming & Li, Haihong & Dai, Qionglin & Yang, Junzhong, 2022. "Migration based on environment comparison promotes cooperation in evolutionary games," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 595(C).
    8. Javarone, Marco Alberto, 2016. "An evolutionary strategy based on partial imitation for solving optimization problems," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 463(C), pages 262-269.
    9. Li, Yixiao & Jin, Xiaogang & Su, Xianchuang & Kong, Fansheng & Peng, Chengbin, 2010. "Cooperation and charity in spatial public goods game under different strategy update rules," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(5), pages 1090-1098.
    10. Dan Ariely & Nina Mazar, 2006. "Dishonesty in everyday life and its policy implications," Working Papers 06-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    11. Sheen S. Levine & Michael J. Prietula, 2014. "Open Collaboration for Innovation: Principles and Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 1414-1433, October.
    12. Wang, Xiaofeng & Perc, Matjaž, 2021. "Emergence of cooperation in spatial social dilemmas with expulsion," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 402(C).
    13. Hong, Lijun & Geng, Yini & Du, Chunpeng & Shen, Chen & Shi, Lei, 2021. "Average payoff-driven or imitation? A new evidence from evolutionary game theory in finite populations," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 394(C).
    14. Kurt A. Ackermann & Ryan O. Murphy, 2019. "Explaining Cooperative Behavior in Public Goods Games: How Preferences and Beliefs Affect Contribution Levels," Games, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-34, March.
    15. Damien Francey & Ralph Bergmüller, 2012. "Images of Eyes Enhance Investments in a Real-Life Public Good," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-7, May.
    16. Yifen Mu, 2014. "Inverse Stackelberg Public Goods Game with Multiple Hierarchies Under Global and Local Information Structures," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 332-350, October.
    17. Yu, Tongkui & Chen, Shu-Heng & Li, Honggang, 2011. "Social Norm, Costly Punishment and the Evolution to Cooperation," MPRA Paper 28814, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. de Oliveira, B.F. & de Moraes, M.V. & Bazeia, D. & Szolnoki, A., 2021. "Mobility driven coexistence of living organisms," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 572(C).
    19. Chen, Wei & Wang, Jianwei & Yu, Fengyuan & He, Jialu & Xu, Wenshu & Wang, Rong, 2021. "Effects of emotion on the evolution of cooperation in a spatial prisoner’s dilemma game," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 411(C).
    20. Ma, Yin-Jie & Jiang, Zhi-Qiang & Podobnik, Boris, 2022. "Predictability of players’ actions as a mechanism to boost cooperation," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:8:y:2017:i:3:p:35-:d:108724. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.