The evolution of indirect reciprocity under action and assessment generosity

Schmid L, Shati P, Hilbe C, Chatterjee K. 2021. The evolution of indirect reciprocity under action and assessment generosity. Scientific Reports. 11(1), 17443.

Download
OA 2021_ScientificReports_Schmid.pdf 2.42 MB [Published Version]

Journal Article | Published | English
Author
Schmid, LauraISTA ; Shati, Pouya; Hilbe, Christian; Chatterjee, KrishnenduISTA

Corresponding author has ISTA affiliation

Abstract
Indirect reciprocity is a mechanism for the evolution of cooperation based on social norms. This mechanism requires that individuals in a population observe and judge each other’s behaviors. Individuals with a good reputation are more likely to receive help from others. Previous work suggests that indirect reciprocity is only effective when all relevant information is reliable and publicly available. Otherwise, individuals may disagree on how to assess others, even if they all apply the same social norm. Such disagreements can lead to a breakdown of cooperation. Here we explore whether the predominantly studied ‘leading eight’ social norms of indirect reciprocity can be made more robust by equipping them with an element of generosity. To this end, we distinguish between two kinds of generosity. According to assessment generosity, individuals occasionally assign a good reputation to group members who would usually be regarded as bad. According to action generosity, individuals occasionally cooperate with group members with whom they would usually defect. Using individual-based simulations, we show that the two kinds of generosity have a very different effect on the resulting reputation dynamics. Assessment generosity tends to add to the overall noise and allows defectors to invade. In contrast, a limited amount of action generosity can be beneficial in a few cases. However, even when action generosity is beneficial, the respective simulations do not result in full cooperation. Our results suggest that while generosity can favor cooperation when individuals use the most simple strategies of reciprocity, it is disadvantageous when individuals use more complex social norms.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2021-08-31
Journal Title
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Nature
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the European Research Council CoG 863818 (ForM-SMArt) (to K.C.) and the European Research Council Starting Grant 850529: E-DIRECT (to C.H.). L.S. received additional partial support by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under Grant Z211-N23 (Wittgenstein Award).
Volume
11
Issue
1
Article Number
17443
eISSN
IST-REx-ID

Cite this

Schmid L, Shati P, Hilbe C, Chatterjee K. The evolution of indirect reciprocity under action and assessment generosity. Scientific Reports. 2021;11(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-021-96932-1
Schmid, L., Shati, P., Hilbe, C., & Chatterjee, K. (2021). The evolution of indirect reciprocity under action and assessment generosity. Scientific Reports. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96932-1
Schmid, Laura, Pouya Shati, Christian Hilbe, and Krishnendu Chatterjee. “The Evolution of Indirect Reciprocity under Action and Assessment Generosity.” Scientific Reports. Springer Nature, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96932-1.
L. Schmid, P. Shati, C. Hilbe, and K. Chatterjee, “The evolution of indirect reciprocity under action and assessment generosity,” Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1. Springer Nature, 2021.
Schmid L, Shati P, Hilbe C, Chatterjee K. 2021. The evolution of indirect reciprocity under action and assessment generosity. Scientific Reports. 11(1), 17443.
Schmid, Laura, et al. “The Evolution of Indirect Reciprocity under Action and Assessment Generosity.” Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, 17443, Springer Nature, 2021, doi:10.1038/s41598-021-96932-1.
All files available under the following license(s):
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0):
Main File(s)
Access Level
OA Open Access
Date Uploaded
2021-09-13
MD5 Checksum
19df8816cf958b272b85841565c73182


Material in ISTA:
Dissertation containing ISTA record

Export

Marked Publications

Open Data ISTA Research Explorer

Web of Science

View record in Web of Science®

Sources

PMID: 34465830
PubMed | Europe PMC

Search this title in

Google Scholar