Effect of adaptive migration with interaction intensity on the evolution of cooperation

Shiru Qiang and Hui Zhang

Ecological Modelling, 2025, vol. 508, issue C

Abstract: Migration (mobility) is a common natural phenomenon and a fundamental element in understanding population dynamics. Adaptive migration (Jiang et al., 2010) has been proposed as an important and efficient mechanism for the evolution of cooperation. In this paper, we focus on the effect of the adaptive migration on the evolution of cooperation by introducing interaction intensity, defined as a probability of the individual’s willingness to interact with an opponent. Our investigations are based on two game models, the Prisoner’s Dilemma game (PDG) and the Snowdrift game (SG). Our results indicate that this modified adaptive migration is much more advantageous for the evolution of cooperation over a larger range of the fraction of empty sites compared to the original adaptive migration mechanism. In moderately sparse populations, the evolution of cooperation can be facilitated through migration. Under this modified adaptive migration, cooperation thrives regardless of the type of game when sensitivity of the stimulus is high. Furthermore, compared to the PDG, the evolution of cooperation in the SG requires lower sensitivity. Finally, in both the PDG and the SG, this modified adaptive migration can induce an outbreak of cooperation in a defector-dominated environment. This reveals that under more efficient resource utilization – here meaning a low fraction of empty sites – modest migration encourages tighter connections between cooperators, which is more conducive to the evolution of cooperation.

Keywords: Cooperation; Evolutionary games; Migration; Interaction intensity; Empty sites (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030438002500208X
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:ecomod:v:508:y:2025:i:c:s030438002500208x

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2025.111223

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().