Global network cooperation catalysed by a small prosocial migrant clique

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a small group of cooperative migrants can trigger widespread cooperation across multiple social networks, highlighting the importance of disruption in fostering cooperative behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a model of multiple interconnected networks with migrating individuals, revealing how minor cooperative groups can catalyze large-scale cooperation.

Findings

Minor migrant groups can induce widespread cooperation

Disruption plays a key role in the emergence of cooperation

Simpler models may overlook the impact of migration and disruption

Abstract

Much research has been carried out to understand the emergence of cooperation in simulated social networks of competing individuals. Such research typically implements a population as a single connected network. Here we adopt a more realistic premise; namely that populations consist of multiple networks, whose members migrate from one to another. Specifically, we isolate the key elements of the scenario where a minority of members from a cooperative network migrate to a network populated by defectors. Using the public goods game to model group-wise cooperation, we find that under certain circumstances, the concerted actions of a trivial number of such migrants will catalyse widespread behavioural change throughout an entire population. Such results support a wider argument: that the general presence of some form of disruption contributes to the emergence of cooperation in social networks, and consequently that simpler models may encode a determinism that precludes the emergence of cooperation.