Cooperation in networked populations of selfish adaptive agents: Sensitivity to network structure

Abstract

This paper investigates the adaptation of cooperating strategies in an iterated prisoner's dilemma (IPD) game with individually learning agents, subject to the structure of the interaction network. In particular, we study how cooperation or defection comes to dominate the population on Watts–Strogatz networks, under varying average path lengths. Our results are in good agreement with previous works on discrete choice dynamics on networks, but are in stark contrast with results from the evolution of cooperation literature. We argue that the latter is because the different adaptation method used (i.e., adaptive learning instead of ‘evolutionary’ strategy switching).