The evolutionary public goods game on scale-free networks with heterogeneous investment

Abstract

The public goods game (PGG) is generally considered as a suitable paradigm to explain ubiquitous cooperative behavior. In this study, we investigated the evolutionary PGG on scale-free networks and studied the effect of individual heterogeneity by setting the cooperator x an investment value correlated to its degree as I x = N ⋅ k x β / ∑ j k j β , where k x is the degree of x , j runs over all players and β is a tunable parameter. It is shown that the cooperation level is remarkably promoted by negative values of β whereas it is highly depressed by positive values of β . Moreover, the effect of environmental noise has also been investigated. Our result may sharpen the understanding of cooperation induced by the individual diversity.