Evolution of cooperation driven by zealots

Recent experimental results with humans involved in social dilemma games suggest that cooperation may be a contagious phenomenon and that the selection pressure operating on evolutionary dynamics (i.e., mimicry) is relatively weak. I propose an evolutionary dynamics model that links these experimental findings and evolution of cooperation. By assuming a small fraction of (imperfect) zealous cooperators, I show that a large fraction of cooperation emerges in evolutionary dynamics of social dilemma games. Even if defection is more lucrative than cooperation for most individuals, they often mimic cooperation of fellows unless the selection pressure is very strong. Then, zealous cooperators can transform the population to be even fully cooperative under standard evolutionary dynamics.Comment: 5 figure

Evolutionary dynamics of cooperation on interdependent networks with Prisoner's Dilemma and Snowdrift Game

The world in which we are living is a huge network of networks and should be described by interdependent networks. The interdependence between networks significantly affects the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation on them. Meanwhile, due to the diversity and complexity of social and biological systems, players on different networks may not interact with each other by the same way, which should be described by multiple models in evolutionary game theory, such as the Prisoner's Dilemma and Snowdrift Game. We therefore study the evolutionary dynamics of cooperation on two interdependent networks playing different games respectively. We clearly evidence that, with the increment of network interdependence, the evolution of cooperation is dramatically promoted on the network playing Prisoner's Dilemma. The cooperation level of the network playing Snowdrift Game reduces correspondingly, although it is almost invisible. In particular, there exists an optimal intermediate region of network interdependence maximizing the growth rate of the evolution of cooperation on the network playing Prisoner's Dilemma. Remarkably, players contacting with other network have advantage in the evolution of cooperation than the others on the same network.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure