Cooperative Boundary Populations: the Evolution of Cooperation on Mortality Risk Gradients

Author: HARMS W.

Source: Journal of Theoretical Biology, Volume 213, Number 2, November 2001 , pp. 299-313(15)

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $52.63 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

Cooperative or altruistic behavior is known to be vulnerable to destructive exploitation in the absence of spatial segregation and perceptual discrimination on the part of cooperators. In this study, a non-standard, agent-based, spatially explicit model of the evolution of cooperation shows that spatial gradients of increasing individual mortality risk can allow cooperative subpopulations to persist among players randomly matched for one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma. Further, the dynamically stable cooperator population formed on the gradient at the boundary of the survivable non-cooperative range provides ideal conditions for the evolution of discriminating strategies such as tit-for-tat. It is suggested that such gradients may commonly exist at the boundaries of the ranges of existing populations, providing a new basic mechanism for the evolution of cooperation. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia, 227-6356 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z2, Canada

Publication date: 2001-11-01