RESHARED POST FROM BETSY MCCALL

Using computer simulations and mathematical models, a group of scientists around Julian Garcia from the Max-Planck Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Plön have developed a new model that is taking both concepts into account. They discovered that direct reciprocity alone is not enough, and that population structure is necessary in order to reach a high level of cooperation. When there is some reciprocity, the average level of cooperation increases because alike types are more likely to interact with each other. Additionally, the researchers observed that cooperation occurs if cooperative and defective individuals are highly clustered and repetition is rare. And surprisingly, too much repetition can even harm cooperation in cases when the population structure makes cooperation between individuals very likely. This is due to the fact that reciprocity can protect defectors from invasion by defectors in a similar manner that it prevents cooperation from being invaded by defectors.

“Without population structure, cooperation based on repetition is unstable,” Garcia explains one of the main findings. This is especially true for humans, where repetition occurs regularly and who live in fluid, but not totally unstructured populations. A pinch of population structure helps a lot if repetition is present. “Therefore, the recipe for human cooperation might be: a bit of structure and a lot of repetition,” says Julian Garcia. This phenomenon results in a high average level of cooperation.

Betsy McCall originally shared this post:

I don’t think it’s “And”, I think it’s “Or”.

Does cooperation require both reciprocity and alike neighbors?

Scientists have developed a new theoretical model on the evolution of cooperation. Evolution by definition is cold and merciless: it selects for success and weeds out failure. It seems only natural to…