The coupling effect between the environment and strategies drives the emergence of group cooperation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a multi-agent reinforcement learning model to study how the interaction between environment and strategies fosters group cooperation in finite populations, revealing the importance of environmental feedback in cooperation dynamics.

Contribution

It presents a novel bottom-up computational approach to analyze eco-evolutionary dynamics, emphasizing the role of environmental feedback in the emergence of cooperation.

Findings

High cooperation levels can emerge even in defector-favoring environments.

Environmental degradation can diminish defection benefits, promoting cooperation.

Agents detect environmental inflection points through rewards, triggering cooperation.

Abstract

Introducing environmental feedback into evolutionary game theory has led to the development of eco-evolutionary games, which have gained popularity due to their ability to capture the intricate interplay between the environment and decision-making processes. However, current researches in this field focus on the study to macroscopic evolutionary dynamics in infinite populations. In this study, we propose a multi-agent computational model based on reinforcement learning to explore the coupled dynamics between strategies and the environment in finite populations from a bottom-up perspective. Our findings indicate that even in environments that favor defectors, high levels of group cooperation can emerge from self-interested individuals, highlighting the significant role of the coupling effect between the environment and strategies. Over time, the higher payoff of defection can be diluted due to environmental degradation, while cooperation can become the dominant strategy when positively reinforced by the environment. Remarkably, individuals can accurately detect the inflection point of the environment solely through rewards, when a reinforcing positive feedback loop are triggered, resulting in a rapid increase in agents' rewards and facilitating the establishment and maintenance of group cooperation. Our research provides a fresh perspective on understanding the emergence of group cooperation and sheds light on the underlying mechanisms involving individuals and the environment.