Promotion of cooperation in evolutionary game dynamics with local information

J Theor Biol. 2018 Jan 21:437:1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2017.10.013. Epub 2017 Oct 13.

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a strategy-updating rule driven by local information, which is called Local process. Unlike the standard Moran process, the Local process does not require global information about the strategic environment. By analyzing the dynamical behavior of the system, we explore how the local information influences the fixation of cooperation in two-player evolutionary games. Under weak selection, the decreasing local information leads to an increase of the fixation probability when natural selection does not favor cooperation replacing defection. In the limit of sufficiently large selection, the analytical results indicate that the fixation probability increases with the decrease of the local information, irrespective of the evolutionary games. Furthermore, for the dominance of defection games under weak selection and for coexistence games, the decreasing of local information will lead to a speedup of a single cooperator taking over the population. Overall, to some extent, the local information is conducive to promoting the cooperation.

Keywords: Evolution of cooperation; Evolutionary game dynamics; Local information; Stochastic process.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Biological Evolution*
  • Cooperative Behavior*
  • Game Theory*
  • Genetic Fitness
  • Humans
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Selection, Genetic
  • Time Factors