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Sympathy and Punishment: Evolution of Cooperation in Public Goods Game

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An important way to maintain human cooperation is punishing defection. However, since punishment is costly, how can it arise and evolve given that individuals who contribute but do not punish fare better than the punishers? This leads to a violation of causality, since the evolution of punishment is prior to the one of cooperation behaviour in evolutionary dynamics. Our public goods game computer simulations based on generalized Moran Process, show that, if there exists a 'behaviour-based sympathy' that compensates those who punish at a personal cost, the way for the emergence and establishment of punishing behaviour is paved. In this way, the causality violation dissipates. Among humans sympathy can be expressed in many ways such as care, praise, solace, ethical support, admiration, and sometimes even adoration; in our computer simulations, we use a small amount of transfer payment to express 'behaviour-based sympathy'. Our conclusions indicate that, there exists co-evolution of sympathy, punishment and cooperation. According to classical philosophy literature, sympathy is a key factor in morality and justice is embodied by punishment; in modern societies, both the moral norms and the judicial system, the representations of sympathy and punishment, play an essential role in stable social cooperation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hang Ye & Fei Tan & Mei Ding & Yongmin Jia & Yefeng Chen, 2011. "Sympathy and Punishment: Evolution of Cooperation in Public Goods Game," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20.
    • Handle: RePEc:jas:jasssj:2010-88-2
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    2. Mike Farjam & Marco Faillo & Ida Sprinkhuizen-Kuyper & Pim Haselager, 2015. "Punishment Mechanisms and Their Effect on Cooperation: A Simulation Study," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 18(1), pages 1-5.
    3. Niu, He & Chen, Yuyou & Ye, Hang & Zhang, Hong & Li, Yan & Chen, Shu, 2020. "Distinguishing punishing costly signals from nonpunishing costly signals can facilitate the emergence of altruistic punishment," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 371(C).
    4. Wang, Yongjie & Chen, Tong & Chen, Qiao & Si, Guangrun, 2017. "Emotional decisions in structured populations for the evolution of public cooperation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 468(C), pages 475-481.
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    7. Roos, Patrick & Gelfand, Michele & Nau, Dana & Lun, Janetta, 2015. "Societal threat and cultural variation in the strength of social norms: An evolutionary basis," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 14-23.
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    9. Kabir, K.M. Ariful & Shahidul Islam, MD & Utsumi, Shinobu & Tanimoto, Jun, 2023. "The emergence of rich complex dynamics in a spatial dyadic game with resource storage, participation cost, and agent interaction propensity," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
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