Evolutionary public goods games on scale-free networks with unequal payoff allocation mechanism

Abstract

In this paper, we bring an unequal payoff allocation mechanism into evolutionary public goods game on scale-free networks and focus on the cooperative behavior of the system. The unequal mechanism can be tuned by one parameter α : if α > 0 , the hub nodes can use its degree advantage to collect more payoff; if α < 0 , numerous non-hub nodes will obtain more payoff in a single round game. Simulation results show that the cooperation level has a non-trivial dependence on α . For the small enhancement factor r , the cooperator frequency can be promoted by both negative and positive α . For large r , there exists an optimal α that can obtain the highest cooperation level. Our results may sharpen the understanding of the emergence of cooperation induced by the unequal payoff allocation mechanism.