Organization of cooperation in fractal structures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how fractal network structures, despite their long average distances, can facilitate cooperation through local clusters and asymmetric barriers, challenging traditional views on network effects.

Contribution

It reveals that fractal structures can promote cooperation due to local clusters and barriers, clarifying previous contradictions and expanding understanding of network influence.

Findings

Fractal structures can facilitate cooperation through local clusters.

Long average distance does not necessarily suppress cooperation.

Removing or adding links can enhance cooperation in networks.

Abstract

It is known that the small-world structure constitutes sufficient conditions to sustain cooperation and thus enhances cooperation. On the contrary, the network with a very long average distance is usually thought of as suppressing the emergence of the cooperation. In this paper we show that the fractal structure, of which the average distance is very long, does not always play a negative role in the organization of cooperation. Compared to regular networks, the fractal structure might even facilitate the emergence of cooperation. This mainly depends on the existence of locally compact clusters. The sparse inter-connection between these clusters constructs an asymmetric barrier that the defection strategy is almost impossible to cross, but the cooperation strategy has a not too small chance. More generally, the network need not to be a standard fractal, as long as such structures exist. In turn, when this typical structure is absent, the fractal structure will also suppress the emergence of the cooperation, such as the fractal configuration obtained by diluting a random tree-like network. Our findings also clarify some contradictions in the previous studies, and suggest that both removing and inserting links from/into a regular network can enhance cooperation.