Cooperation transitions in social games induced by aspiration-driven players
Miguel Aguilar-Janita, Nagi Khalil, Inmaculada Leyva, Irene, Sendi\~na-Nadal

TL;DR
This paper investigates how aspiration-driven strategy updates influence cooperation in social games, revealing phase transitions and conditions that favor cooperation, contrasting with imitation-based dynamics, supported by theoretical and simulation results.
Contribution
It introduces a comprehensive model of aspiration-driven strategy updating, analyzing its effects on cooperation transitions, and compares it with imitation mechanisms in social game dynamics.
Findings
Continuous and abrupt cooperation transitions identified.
Strong selection can lead to multiple steady states or trapping.
Aspiration-driven updates promote cooperation in Prisoner Dilemma.
Abstract
Cooperation and defection are social traits whose evolutionary origin is still unresolved. Recent behavioral experiments with humans suggested that strategy changes are driven mainly by the individuals' expectations and not by imitation. This work theoretically analyzes and numerically explores an aspiration-driven strategy updating in a well-mixed population playing games. The payoffs of the game matrix and the aspiration are condensed into just two parameters that allow a comprehensive description of the dynamics. We find continuous and abrupt transitions in the cooperation density with excellent agreement between theory and the Gillespie simulations. Under strong selection, the system can display several levels of steady cooperation or get trapped into absorbing states. These states are still relevant for experiments even when irrational choices are made due to their prolonged…
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Taxonomy
TopicsEvolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
