Diverse roles of the reduced learning ability of players in the evolution of cooperation

Abstract

Individual heterogeneity in the reproductive rate is found to play an important role in the emergence and persistence of cooperation. Most of the existing literature focused mainly on the enhancement of cooperation by the introduction of inhomogeneous teaching capability of the individuals. It is far from clear how the heterogeneous learning ability of the individuals affects the evolution of cooperation. To fill this research gap, we make comparative studies of the evolutionary spatial prisoner's dilemma game with reduced learning or teaching ability of the players, under both synchronous and asynchronous strategy updating schemes. By carrying out extensive computer simulations, we show that cooperation can always be facilitated if the inhomogeneous teaching ability of the players is considered, irrespectively of the strategy updating manner. By contrast, cooperation is promoted (inhibited) in the case of synchronous (asynchronous) strategy updating, if heterogeneous learning ability is considered, which is attributed to the reduced ability of cooperators to expand their domains.