
A social dilemma with a variable resource: If the lumberjacks work together to plant as well as fell trees, the natural resource remains valuable. If they are selfish, and log without replanting, the forest is ruined, earning them less or no money. Only a great deal of cooperative effort can get the forest back to its original, valuable state.
CREDIT
IST Austria/Birgit Rieger
Framework provides new tools to systematically build cooperation; scientists extend theory of repeated games
When what we want as individuals clashes with what is best for the group, we have a social dilemma. How can we overcome these dilemmas, and encourage people to cooperate, even if they have reason not to? In a paper released today in Nature, Christian Hilbe and Krishnendu Chatterjee of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), together with Martin Nowak of Harvard and Stepan Simsa of Charles University, have shown that if the social dilemma that individuals face is dependent on whether or not they work together, cooperation can triumph. This finding was the result of a new type of framework that they introduced–one that extends the entire theory of repeated games. Moreover, as their work pinpoints the ideal conditions for fostering cooperation, they have provided tools to systematically build cooperation.
The tragedy of the commons: if we can (ab)use a public good without seeing negative consequences, we will–without consideration of others or the future. We see examples of this in our daily lives, from climate change and forest depletion down to the stack of dirty dishes in the office kitchen. In game theory, scientists have used repeated games–repeated interactions where individuals face the same social dilemma each time–to understand when individuals choose to cooperate, i.e. their strategies. However, these games have always kept the value of the public resource constant, no matter how players acted in the previous round–something that does not reflect reality of the situation. In their new framework, Hilbe, Simsa, Chatterjee, and Nowak consider repeated games in which cooperation does not only affect the players’ present payoffs, but also which game they face in the next round. “Repeated games have been studied intensely for over 40 years, and significant new developments are rare–especially such simple ones,” says Martin Nowak. “This addition actually extends the whole theory of repeated games, as a fixed environment is a special case of our new framework.”
When they explored the new model, the scientists found that this dependence on players’ actions could greatly increase the chance that players cooperate–provided the right conditions were in place. “Our framework shows which kinds of feedback are most likely to lead to cooperation,” says first author Christian Hilbe. These include, for instance, how quickly the resource degrades or how easy it is to return to a more valuable state. “Using this knowledge, you can design systems that maximize cooperation, or create an environment that encourages people to work together,” he adds. For example, these ideas could even be implemented by a business or corporation, to create a work community that encourages working together.
The new research project also demonstrates how cooperations between fields of research can yield valuable results. “Working with computer scientists has been extremely rewarding for me as a biologist,” adds Nowak. “The tools and perspectives they bring with them have had and will have a significant impact on what we can do.” The authors talk more about how this particular project came to be in their post on the Nature blog.
Learn more: Engineering cooperation
The Latest on: Systematically building cooperation
via Google News
The Latest on: Systematically building cooperation
- Calling Moscow's bluffon February 18, 2021 at 5:09 am
Meanwhile, it is building at least 20 new nuclear weapons ... influence their governments and systematically transfer wealth back to the Russian government. Consequently, the demand that Western ...
- Calling Moscow's bluffon February 17, 2021 at 2:30 pm
Not only should we impose the sanctions that our elites are advocating, we should also go directly after Putin and his entourage’s money abroad.
- Malvinas question dispute: new phase in Argentina/UK relations will create favorable conditionson February 17, 2021 at 8:45 am
Faurie also underlined president Macri's efforts to improve cooperation with London in ... a position which has been systematically supported by the C24 committee. And as expected following ...
- Egyptian Exceptionalism in a Chinese-led Worldon February 10, 2021 at 11:27 am
Despite huge economic cooperation and unrestrained reciprocal praise, Egypt and China’s relationship is more complex and unilateral than either would admit.
- Egyptian Exceptionalism in a Chinese-Led Worldon February 9, 2021 at 4:01 pm
Egyptian officials have to systematically approach negotiations ... strategies and take advantage of the building of infrastructures and cooperation on capacity to make Egypt a supporting country ...
- Complete and cooperative in vitro assembly of computationally designed self-assembling protein nanomaterialson February 9, 2021 at 1:58 pm
We found that assembly of each material from its two constituent protein building blocks was highly cooperative and yielded exclusively complete, 120-subunit complexes except in one non ...
- Platform Governance: New research network fosters global cooperationon February 3, 2021 at 6:29 am
which is open to all interested in building the network (and helping define and shape its core functions, aims, and governance structure). Submissions are open until 22 February 2021, and ...
- Ahead of a democracy summit, start at home and listen to our friends abroadon February 3, 2021 at 3:06 am
Meanwhile, China and its allies are systematically exploiting the weaknesses ... dangerous politics and inspire greater confidence and cooperation among other democracies around the world.
- 40 years hence, PHL’s full immunization goal for children remains a ‘quixotic’ quest – PIDSon February 2, 2021 at 4:05 pm
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) believes the Philippines can further ease mobility restrictions—with the cooperation ... vaccination is neither systematically collected ...
via Bing News