IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0025555.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Network Fluctuations Hinder Cooperation in Evolutionary Games

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Antonioni
  • Marco Tomassini

Abstract

In this paper we study the influence of random network fluctuations on the behavior of evolutionary games on Barabási–Albert networks. This network class has been shown to promote cooperation on social dilemmas such as the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Snowdrift games when the population network is fixed. Here we introduce exogenous random fluctuations of the network links through several noise models, and we investigate the evolutionary dynamics comparing them with the known static network case. The results we obtain show that even a moderate amount of random noise on the network links causes a significant loss of cooperation, to the point that cooperation vanishes altogether in the Prisoner's Dilemma when the noise rate is the same as the agents' strategy revision rate. The results appear to be robust since they are essentially the same whatever the type of the exogenous noise. Besides, it turns out that random network noise is more important than strategy noise in suppressing cooperation. Thus, even in the more favorable situation of accumulated payoff in which links have no cost, the mere presence of random external network fluctuations act as a powerful limitation to the attainment of high levels of cooperation.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Antonioni & Marco Tomassini, 2011. "Network Fluctuations Hinder Cooperation in Evolutionary Games," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(10), pages 1-9, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0025555
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025555
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0025555
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0025555&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0025555?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francisco C Santos & Jorge M Pacheco & Tom Lenaerts, 2006. "Cooperation Prevails When Individuals Adjust Their Social Ties," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(10), pages 1-8, October.
    2. Julia Poncela & Jesús Gómez-Gardeñes & Luis M Floría & Angel Sánchez & Yamir Moreno, 2008. "Complex Cooperative Networks from Evolutionary Preferential Attachment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(6), pages 1-6, June.
    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. Wang, Junfang & Shen, Aizhong, 2024. "The synergy of elimination and zero-determinant strategy on dynamic games," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    2. Stojkoski, Viktor & Karbevski, Marko & Utkovski, Zoran & Basnarkov, Lasko & Kocarev, Ljupco, 2021. "Evolution of cooperation in networked heterogeneous fluctuating environments," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 572(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. Zhang, Jianlei & Zhang, Chunyan & Chu, Tianguang, 2011. "The evolution of cooperation in spatial groups," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 131-136.
    2. Scatà, Marialisa & Di Stefano, Alessandro & La Corte, Aurelio & Liò, Pietro & Catania, Emanuele & Guardo, Ermanno & Pagano, Salvatore, 2016. "Combining evolutionary game theory and network theory to analyze human cooperation patterns," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 17-24.
    3. Xiaojie Chen & Yongkui Liu & Yonghui Zhou & Long Wang & Matjaž Perc, 2012. "Adaptive and Bounded Investment Returns Promote Cooperation in Spatial Public Goods Games," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-8, May.
    4. Te Wu & Feng Fu & Long Wang, 2011. "Moving Away from Nasty Encounters Enhances Cooperation in Ecological Prisoner's Dilemma Game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(11), pages 1-7, November.
    5. Michael Foley & Rory Smead & Patrick Forber & Christoph Riedl, 2021. "Avoiding the bullies: The resilience of cooperation among unequals," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(4), pages 1-18, April.
    6. Wang, Lei & Wang, Juan & Guo, Baohong & Ding, Shuai & Li, Yukun & Xia, Chengyi, 2014. "Effects of benefit-inspired network coevolution on spatial reciprocity in the prisoner’s dilemma game," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 9-16.
    7. Markus Brede, 2013. "Short Versus Long Term Benefits and the Evolution of Cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma Game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-9, February.
    8. Tanimoto, Jun, 2009. "Promotion of cooperation through co-evolution of networks and strategy in a 2 × 2 game," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(6), pages 953-960.
    9. Sibilla Di Guida & The Anh Han & Georg Kirchsteiger & Tom Lenaerts & Ioannis Zisis, 2021. "Repeated Interaction and Its Impact on Cooperation and Surplus Allocation—An Experimental Analysis," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, March.
    10. Yu, Fengyuan & Wang, Jianwei & Chen, Wei & He, Jialu, 2023. "Increased cooperation potential and risk under suppressed strategy differentiation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 621(C).
    11. Zhang, Hui & Wang, Li & Hou, Dongshuang, 2016. "Effect of the spatial autocorrelation of empty sites on the evolution of cooperation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 443(C), pages 296-308.
    12. Brent Simpson & Bradley Montgomery & David Melamed, 2023. "Reputations for treatment of outgroup members can prevent the emergence of political segregation in cooperative networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    13. Yu, Fengyuan & Wang, Jianwei & He, Jialu, 2022. "Inequal dependence on members stabilizes cooperation in spatial public goods game," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 165(P1).
    14. Pan, Qiuhui & Shi, Shu & Zhang, Yu & He, Mingfeng, 2013. "Cooperation in spatial prisoner’s dilemma game with delayed decisions," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 166-174.
    15. Chen, Zhuo & Gao, Jianxi & Cai, Yunze & Xu, Xiaoming, 2011. "Evolution of cooperation among mobile agents," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(9), pages 1615-1622.
    16. Dehghani, Sedigheh & Nazarimehr, Fahimeh & Jafari, Sajad, 2021. "How can cultural conditions affect society’s decisions?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 582(C).
    17. Liu, Chen & Shi, Juan & Li, Tong & Liu, Jinzhuo, 2019. "Aspiration driven coevolution resolves social dilemmas in networks," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 342(C), pages 247-254.
    18. Zhang, Liming & Huang, Changwei & Li, Haihong & Dai, Qionglin & Yang, Junzhong, 2021. "Cooperation guided by imitation, aspiration and conformity-driven dynamics in evolutionary games," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 561(C).
    19. Chen, Zhuo & Gao, Jianxi & Cai, Yunze & Xu, Xiaoming, 2011. "Evolutionary prisoner’s dilemma game in flocks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 390(1), pages 50-56.
    20. Alessandro Di Stefano & Marialisa Scatà & Aurelio La Corte & Pietro Liò & Emanuele Catania & Ermanno Guardo & Salvatore Pagano, 2015. "Quantifying the Role of Homophily in Human Cooperation Using Multiplex Evolutionary Game Theory," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-21, October.

    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:plo:pone00:0025555. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.