IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v400y1999i6741d10.1038_22247.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evolution of cooperation between individuals

Author

Listed:
  • Arnon Lotem

    (Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University)

  • Michael A. Fishman

    (Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University)

  • Lewi Stone

    (Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University)

Abstract

Nowak and Sigmund1 conclude that cooperation may have evolved through indirect reciprocity by image scoring. Their simulations1 and analytical models1,2 predict long-term cyclical dynamics between cooperative and defector populations rather than an evolutionarily stable equilibrium. Here we add a realistic feature to their model: that there are always some individuals unable to cooperate owing to their poor phenotypic condition (we call these individuals ‘phenotypic defectors’). The presence of phenotypic defectors paradoxically allows persistent discriminating cooperation under a much wider range of conditions than found by Nowak and Sigmund because there is selection against both defection and unconditional altruism. In real populations there will nearly always be some level of defection because phenotypic defectors (such as the young, sick or handicapped) may be unable to help even if they have a genetic predisposition to do so.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnon Lotem & Michael A. Fishman & Lewi Stone, 1999. "Evolution of cooperation between individuals," Nature, Nature, vol. 400(6741), pages 226-227, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:400:y:1999:i:6741:d:10.1038_22247
    DOI: 10.1038/22247
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/22247
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/22247?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Cao, Lixuan & Wu, Bin, 2021. "Eco-evolutionary dynamics with payoff-dependent environmental feedback," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Presbitero, Alva & Monterola, Christopher, 2018. "Challenging the evolution of social cooperation in a community governed by central control," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 511(C), pages 378-388.
    3. Chengzhang Ma & Wei Cao & Wangheng Liu & Rong Gui & Ya Jia, 2013. "Direct Sum Matrix Game with Prisoner's Dilemma and Snowdrift Game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-7, December.
    4. Tatsuya Sasaki & Satoshi Uchida & Isamu Okada & Hitoshi Yamamoto, 2024. "The Evolution of Cooperation and Diversity under Integrated Indirect Reciprocity," Games, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-16, April.
    5. 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.
    6. Suzuki, Shinsuke & Akiyama, Eizo, 2008. "Evolutionary stability of first-order-information indirect reciprocity in sizable groups," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 426-436.
    7. Banerjee, Prasenjit & Shogren, Jason F., 2012. "Material interests, moral reputation, and crowding out species protection on private land," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 137-149.
    8. Hopp, Daniel & Süß, Karolin, 2024. "How altruistic is indirect reciprocity? — Evidence from gift-exchange games in the lab," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    9. Isamu Okada, 2020. "A Review of Theoretical Studies on Indirect Reciprocity," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, July.
    10. Kurokawa, Shun, 2022. "Evolution of trustfulness in the case where resources for cooperation are sometimes absent," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 63-79.
    11. Mike Mesterton-Gibbons & Tom Sherratt, 2011. "Information, variance and cooperation: minimal models," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 419-439, September.
    12. Berger, Ulrich, 2011. "Learning to cooperate via indirect reciprocity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 30-37, May.
    13. Bolton, Gary E. & Katok, Elena & Ockenfels, Axel, 2005. "Cooperation among strangers with limited information about reputation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(8), pages 1457-1468, August.
    14. Janssen, Marco A., 2008. "Evolution of cooperation in a one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma based on recognition of trustworthy and untrustworthy agents," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(3-4), pages 458-471, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:nature:v:400:y:1999:i:6741:d:10.1038_22247. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.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.