Exemplary cooperation strategy with positive influence enhances cooperation quality in social dilemma

Xue Fan, Lidong Wang, Xuesong Liu and Anhao Zheng

Applied Mathematics and Computation, 2025, vol. 498, issue C

Abstract: An exemplary cooperation strategy with completely altruistic behavior is studied in this paper. This strategy not only exhibits altruism comparable to that of ordinary cooperators, but also exerts a power of good example through its unconditional cost, and influences the defector to give unforced-feedback. The findings indicate that even in the face of high temptation, exemplary cooperation strategies can also effectively prevent the total expansion of defection strategies and coexist with them. When the three strategies coexist, higher temptation does not promote defection but rather enhances the quality of cooperation to some extent. Moreover, the increase in unforced-feedback from defectors leads to a rise in the proportion of ordinary cooperation. Notably, the exemplary cooperation strategy can maintain a certain level in the population even in an unfavorable environment for cooperation, thus preventing the population from a state of full defectors. In general, the introduction of exemplary cooperation strategies fosters the development of cooperation to a certain extent. It offers a fresh perspective for understanding the emergence and sustenance of cooperative behavior.

Keywords: Cooperation; Evolutionary game theory; Social dilemma; Exemplary cooperation strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0096300325001249
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:apmaco:v:498:y:2025:i:c:s0096300325001249

DOI: 10.1016/j.amc.2025.129397

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Mathematics and Computation is currently edited by Theodore Simos

More articles in Applied Mathematics and Computation from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().