Altruistic Cooperation Research Articles

Roles of empathy in altruistic cooperation in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundAltruistic cooperation (AC) is essential in human social interactions. Previous studies have investigated AC-related behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), revealing that there is considerable individual variability in the behavior. However, this issue is still largely unexplored especially in the adult population. AimsTo investigate individual differences in AC-related behavior, we conducted the resource allocation task (RAT) and modified version of the ultimatum game (mUG) among adults with and without ASD. Methods and proceduresThe study employed a cross-sectional design, involving 27 adults with ASD (mean age 29.1 ± 4.3 years; three females) and 27 adults with typical development (TD) (mean age 25.8 ± 6.7 years; two females), who completed the RAT and mUG tasks. Beyond clinical characteristics, we assessed three primary psychological metrics: the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI), Barratt impulsiveness scale, and the behavioral inhibition and activation systems. Outcomes and resultsNo significant differences were observed in the proportions of participants with high AC when assessed by RAT (p = 0.15) and mUG (p = 0.59) between the TD and ASD groups. Participants with high AC from the RAT demonstrated higher perspective-taking scores on the IRI than those with low AC within both the TD (p = 0.04) and ASD groups (p = 0.03). In the TD group, high AC individuals also scored higher on the IRI's fantasy subscale as per the mUG (p = 0.03); however, this trend was not present in the ASD group. Conclusions and implicationsThe present findings indicate that empathy plays an important role in individual differences in AC-related behavior among adults with and without ASD, although the role could be different depending on the types of AC-related behavior between TD and ASD populations.

Dynamic altruistic cooperation within breast tumors

BackgroundSocial behaviors such as altruism, where one self-sacrifices for collective benefits, critically influence an organism’s survival and responses to the environment. Such behaviors are widely exemplified in nature but have been underexplored in cancer cells which are conventionally seen as selfish competitive players. This multidisciplinary study explores altruism and its mechanism in breast cancer cells and its contribution to chemoresistance.MethodsMicroRNA profiling was performed on circulating tumor cells collected from the blood of treated breast cancer patients. Cancer cell lines ectopically expressing candidate miRNA were used in co-culture experiments and treated with docetaxel. Ecological parameters like relative survival and relative fitness were assessed using flow cytometry. Functional studies and characterization performed in vitro and in vivo include proliferation, iTRAQ-mass spectrometry, RNA sequencing, inhibition by small molecules and antibodies, siRNA knockdown, CRISPR/dCas9 inhibition and fluorescence imaging of promoter reporter-expressing cells. Mathematical modeling based on evolutionary game theory was performed to simulate spatial organization of cancer cells.ResultsOpposing cancer processes underlie altruism: an oncogenic process involving secretion of IGFBP2 and CCL28 by the altruists to induce survival benefits in neighboring cells under taxane exposure, and a self-sacrificial tumor suppressive process impeding proliferation of altruists via cell cycle arrest. Both processes are regulated concurrently in the altruists by miR-125b, via differential NF-κB signaling specifically through IKKβ. Altruistic cells persist in the tumor despite their self-sacrifice, as they can regenerate epigenetically from non-altruists via a KLF2/PCAF-mediated mechanism. The altruists maintain a sparse spatial organization by inhibiting surrounding cells from adopting the altruistic fate via a lateral inhibition mechanism involving a GAB1-PI3K-AKT-miR-125b signaling circuit.ConclusionsOur data reveal molecular mechanisms underlying manifestation, persistence and spatial spread of cancer cell altruism. A minor population behave altruistically at a cost to itself producing a collective benefit for the tumor, suggesting tumors to be dynamic social systems governed by the same rules of cooperation in social organisms. Understanding cancer cell altruism may lead to more holistic models of tumor evolution and drug response, as well as therapeutic paradigms that account for social interactions. Cancer cells constitute tractable experimental models for fields beyond oncology, like evolutionary ecology and game theory.

Attitudinal analysis of vaccination effects to lead endemic phases

To achieve endemic phases, repeated vaccinations are necessary. However, individuals may grapple with whether to get vaccinated due to potential side effects. When an individual is already immune due to previous infections or vaccinations, the perceived risk from vaccination is often less than the risk of infection. Yet, repeated rounds of vaccination can lead to avoidance, impeding the establishment of endemic phases. We explore this phenomenon using an individual-based Monte Carlo simulation, validating our findings with game theory. The Nash equilibrium encapsulates individuals' non-cooperative behavior, while the system's optimal value represents the societal benefits of altruistic cooperation. We define the difference between these as the price of anarchy. Our simulations reveal that the price of anarchy must fall below a threshold of 12.47 for endemic phases to be achieved in a steady state. This suggests that for a basic reproduction number of 10, a consistent vaccination rate greater than 89% is required. These findings offer new insights into vaccination-related decision-making and can inform effective strategies to tackle infectious diseases.

Superlinear growth and the fossil fuel energy sustainability dilemma: Evidence from six continents

This study investigates lessons in energy efficiency and sustainability that human societies can learn from insect colonies that exhibit altruistic cooperation. Distinguishing from the altruism-cooperation in eusocial insects, modern market-economy institutions are established based on the human nature of self-interest and a coordinated form of a non-cooperative game. Here, we employ a theoretical model to show that a non-cooperative game among heterogeneous agents causes the emergence of a technology, which in turn leads to a superlinear scaling relationship between the GDP and the population size, in good agreement with the data collected from 106 countries in seven regions of the world. However, although the emergence of technology triggers the superlinear growth of the GDP, our study finds a superlinear relationship between the fossil fuel energy consumption and the population size in six continents, which suggests that past technological progress in fact fails in pursuing a sustainable manner for energy usage. From a sustainability perspective, the preservation of natural resources is a goal of Circular Economy strategy. Thus, the results of our study call for an urgent enhancement of the efficiency of energy usage to avoid the potential collapse of sustainability.

Aspiration drives adaptive switching between two different payoff matrices

Under given social dilemma, different individuals perhaps have different perceptions for the dilemma intensity. Generally speaking, the degree of individual’s perception should be closely related to its ability, the stronger the ability of individual, the weaker the perception for the dilemma intensity will be. On the other hand, the competent individuals may be more likely to carry out altruistic cooperation behavior than those who are relatively lacking in ability. Considering these facts, we introduce an evolutionary game model in which individual can adaptively switch between two payoff matrices with different temptations based on aspiration to explore the cooperation dynamics in spatial prisoner’s dilemma. In this model, two different payoff matrices are denoted by Mw and Ms respectively, the temptation value of the former is small, and the one of the latter is large. For the individual who has adopted Mw to interact, the higher the individual is satisfied with the current payoff, the lower the probability of switching to Ms in the next round, while for the individual who has adopted Ms to interact, the higher the individual is satisfied with the current payoff, the higher the probability of switching to Mw in the next round. Experimental results show that this mechanism of adaptive switching between payoff matrices with different temptations can effectively promote the cooperation of spatial prisoner’s dilemma, and the appropriate aspiration level of individual can provide the most favorable environment for the diffusion of cooperation. The difference in the perception for dilemma intensity will be a new perspective in the study of networked evolution game.

BTG1 mutation yields supercompetitive B cells primed for malignant transformation.

Multicellular life requires altruistic cooperation between cells. The adaptive immune system is a notable exception, wherein germinal center B cells compete vigorously for limiting positive selection signals. Studying primary human lymphomas and developing new mouse models, we found that mutations affecting BTG1 disrupt a critical immune gatekeeper mechanism that strictly limits B cell fitness during antibody affinity maturation. This mechanism converted germinal center B cells into supercompetitors that rapidly outstrip their normal counterparts. This effect was conferred by a small shift in MYC protein induction kinetics but resulted in aggressive invasive lymphomas, which in humans are linked to dire clinical outcomes. Our findings reveal a delicate evolutionary trade-off between natural selection of B cells to provide immunity and potentially dangerous features that recall the more competitive nature of unicellular organisms.

Environmental heterogeneity unifies the effect of spatial structure on the altruistic cooperation in game-theory paradigms

As vivid metaphors for social dilemmas, the prisoner’s dilemma game, snowdrift game, and stag hunt game have been the focus of game theory research. Incorporating spatial structure into game models has been proven to have the opposite impact on the evolution of cooperation. Nevertheless, it is demonstrated here that spatial structure always fosters cooperation provided the environmental heterogeneity is included, regardless of the social dilemma. We consider the static and dynamic heterogeneous environment categories. The results exhibit that, in a static environment with two state types (poor and rich), a higher quality level of the rich state can bring a more pronounced improvement effect, and a moderate proportion of the rich-type environment will enable the density of cooperators to reach its maximum. To portray a more realistic scenario, the state types are further increased to fulfill the uniform distribution and the normal distribution, respectively, meanwhile they are allowed to fluctuate. It is shown that the enhancement effect is invariably verified. Additionally, the uniform distribution performs better in the static environment while two distributions present virtually consistent impact in the dynamic environment. The robustness analysis reveals that our claims are supported under various initial distributions, environment compositions, population configurations, and even the heat maps of parameter combination T-S. Our conclusions imply that environmental heterogeneity is crucial to the development of cooperation in social dilemmas.

Spatial structure might impede cooperation in evolutionary games with reinforcement learning

Cooperation has attracted considerable attention in recent years. In order to explain altruistic cooperation behaviors that emerged in social dilemmas, a large number of mechanisms have been proposed under the framework of traditional evolutionary game (EG) theory, especially network reciprocity, which has achieved great success. On the other hand, the design of AI algorithm provides a new idea for agents’ decision-making behaviors. The influence of multi-agent reinforcement learning (RL) on cooperation has also received a lot of attention. However, the study of EG with AI algorithm in a population located on spatial structures has not been thoroughly considered. In this paper, we incorporate RL into EGs conducted on spatial structures. By numerical simulations, we find that, in comparison to the well-mixed case, cooperation might be impeded in the population located on spatial structures when the agents update their strategies by adopting Q-learning algorithm instead of pairwise imitation that widely used in traditional EGs. We further reveal the mechanism for the evolution of cooperation in the EGs with Q-learning algorithm, by investigating the distributions of the Q-tables held by agents in the population. Our findings may help understand the different outcomes on spatial structures in EGs with Q-learning algorithm when compared with that in traditional EGs.

Degree of satisfaction-based adaptive interaction in spatial Prisoner’s dilemma

To study why the altruistic cooperation behavior can emerge and maintain among egoistical individuals, researchers across several disciplines have made great contributions for the solutions of this fascinating problem. Ordinarily, the spatial structure is a most often used framework to investigate the cooperative dynamics of evolutionary game. However, very few researchers take into account the reaction of evolutionary game dynamics to interactive intensity between individuals. On account of this, we propose a computational model of automatic adjustment of the interactive intensity based on individual’s degree of satisfaction to study the iterated prisoner’s dilemma game in a two-dimensional square lattice. In this model, selfish individual considers whether the benefits obtained from the other party satisfy its own requirements to determine the intensity of interaction from it to the other party. More specifically, the interactive intensity from an individual x to its some neighbor y is driven by the relations between x obtained current benefit from y (denoted by $$P_{x\rightharpoonup y}$$ ) and x’s satisfaction payoff (denoted by $$S_{p}$$ ). If $$P_{x\rightharpoonup y}>S_{p}$$ , x will increase the intensity of interaction from itself to y; on the contrary, if $$P_{x\rightharpoonup y}<S_{p}$$ , x will weaken the intensity of interaction; other scenarios remain the same. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can effectively promote the emergence and maintain of cooperation in population, and the satisfying coefficient $$\alpha $$ ( $$0<\alpha <1$$ ) plays an essential role on cooperation. Interestingly, we found that there are some optimal values $$\alpha $$ that can lead to the best promotion of cooperation. However, individual’s overclaim ( $$\alpha >1$$ ) is not conducive to the effective promotion of cooperation between selfish individuals even for very small temptations to defect. Our results may contribute to the understanding of cooperative dynamics by considering the reaction of evolutionary game dynamics to network.

The Role of Culture in Evolutionary Theories of Human Cooperation

Abstract Evolutionarily-minded scholars working on the most puzzling aspects of human cooperation-one-shot, anonymous interactions among non-kin where reputational information is not available-can be roughly divided into two camps. In the first, researchers argue for the existence of evolved capacities for genuinely altruistic human cooperation, and in their models emphasize the role of intergroup competition and selection, as well as group norms and markers of membership that reduce intragroup variability. Researchers in the second camp explain cooperation in terms of individual-level decision-making facilitated by evolved cognitive mechanisms associated with well-established self- and kin-maximization models, as well as by ‘misfires’ that may result from these mechanisms interacting with novel environments. This essay argues that the manner in which culture provides information that de-anonymizes intragroup strangers suggests that neither evolved capacities for genuine altruism nor widespread misfires are necessary to account for anonymous, one-shot cooperation.

Co-operatives exhibit greater behavioral cooperation than comparable businesses: Experimental evidence

Abstract Cooperatives as can be presumed to rely on the economic cooperation of their members. However, game-theoretic and institutional models suggest that cooperatives may be inherently fragile due to the individual costs of cooperation. Because of this it is widely believed that organizations which rely less on cooperation may be more stable, while organizations that require cooperation may be at higher risk of folding. Therefore, if cooperatively owned or managed businesses do in fact require higher levels of prosocial and cooperative behavior than hierarchically managed firms, they must attract and maintain cooperation among participants in order to function. We hypothesized that successful consumer food cooperatives will exhibit greater generalized cooperation than conventional grocery stores. We employed an experimental dictator game to measure altruistic cooperation among consumers at a food cooperative and a comparable conventional grocery. Cooperative customers exhibit a higher base rate of cooperation than similar conventional shoppers, and this relationship holds even when taking demographic factors such as income, education, and age into account. We conclude that, when successful, consumer cooperatives exhibit greater levels of cooperation than comparable traditional businesses.

Evolution of altruistic cooperation among nascent multicellular organisms.

Cooperation is a classic solution to hostile environments that limit individual survival. In extreme cases this may lead to the evolution of new types of biological individuals (e.g., eusocial super-organisms). We examined the potential for interindividual cooperation to evolve via experimental evolution, challenging nascent multicellular "snowflake yeast" with an environment in which solitary multicellular clusters experienced low survival. In response, snowflake yeast evolved to form cooperative groups composed of thousands of multicellular clusters that typically survive selection. Group formation occurred through the creation of protein aggregates, only arising in strains with high (>2%) rates of cell death. Nonetheless, it was adaptive and repeatable, although ultimately evolutionarily unstable. Extracellular protein aggregates act as a common good, as they can be exploited by cheats that do not contribute to aggregate production. These results highlight the importance of group formation as a mechanism for surviving environmental stress, and underscore the remarkable ease with which even simple multicellular entities may evolve-and lose-novel social traits.

Discrimination Experiments in Entamoeba and Evidence from Other Protists Suggest Pathogenic Amebas Cooperate with Kin to Colonize Hosts and Deter Rivals.

Entamoeba histolytica is one of the least understood protists in terms of taxa, clone, and kin discrimination/recognition ability. However, the capacity to tell apart same or self (clone/kin) from different or nonself (nonclone/nonkin) has long been demonstrated in pathogenic eukaryotes like Trypanosoma and Plasmodium, free-living social amebas (Dictyostelium, Polysphondylium), budding yeast (Saccharomyces), and in numerous bacteria and archaea (prokaryotes). Kin discrimination/recognition is explained under inclusive fitness theory; that is, the reproductive advantage that genetically closely related organisms (kin) can gain by cooperating preferably with one another (rather than with distantly related or unrelated individuals), minimizing antagonism and competition with kin, and excluding genetic strangers (or cheaters=noncooperators that benefit from others' investments in altruistic cooperation). In this review, we rely on the outcomes of invitro pairwise discrimination/recognition encounters between seven Entamoeba lineages to discuss the biological significance of taxa, clone, and kin discrimination/recognition in a range of generalist and specialist species (close or distantly related phylogenetically). We then focus our discussion on the importance of these laboratory observations for E.histolytica's life cycle, host infestation, and implications of these features of the amebas' natural history for human health (including mitigation of amebiasis).

Abstract 203: Regenerable altruism drives chemotolerance in clonal cancer cells

Abstract Introduction: Cancer is thought to represent a breakdown of multicellular cooperation and reversion to Darwinian dynamics characterized principally by self-interested competition. However, there is increasing evidence that cancer cells can behave as communities, manifesting social behaviors that influence cancer progression. Methods: Circulating tumor cells enrichment, microRNA extraction, qRT-PCR, MTS assays, RNA in situ hybridization, immunohistochemical staining, SILAC-based mass spectrometry, flow cytometry, ChIP-sequencing, and western blotting. Results: We report here evidences of altruistic cooperation in clonal breast cancer cells. Heterogeneity in expression of a microRNA, miR-125b, leads to sectoring of clonal breast cancer cell populations into minority miR-125b-high and majority miR-125b-low subpopulations. Enhanced population-wide tolerance to taxane-based chemotherapy is mediated by the miR-125b-high minority, in part through increased secretion of extracellular public goods such as insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP2) and chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 28 (CCL28). Cost-benefit analysis established this helping behavior to be altruistic, as survival benefits conferred to the miR-125b-low cells, via public goods sharing, occurred at a fitness cost to the miR-125b-high cells. Notwithstanding this fitness cost, miR-125b-high altruists regenerate readily from isolated populations of miR-125b-low defectors, via Kruppel-like factor 2-mediated epigenetic mechanism of histone deacetylation. As therapeutic proof-of-principle, we demonstrated that targeting extracellular IGFBP2 and CCL28, through ligand neutralization, markedly blunted the tolerance response of cancer cells towards taxane chemotherapy. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate how positive social engagement such as altruism may be employed by heterogeneous clonal cancer communities to drive chemotolerance, and understanding of such social behaviors could help formulate more effective treatment strategies. Citation Format: Kee Wah Lee, Muhammad Sufyan Masroni, Karen Meiling Tan, Mo-Huang Li, Lihan Zhou, Steven Tucker, Lynette Su Mien Ngo, Chan Fong Chang, Boon Huat Bay, Soo Yong Tan, Mikael Hartman, Huiwen Chua, Tze Ping Loh, Thomas Putti, Sai Mun Leong, Evelyn Siew-Chuan Koay. Regenerable altruism drives chemotolerance in clonal cancer cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 203.

Competitive–Cooperative Strategy Based on Altruistic Behavior for Dual-Channel Supply Chains

As market competition becomes increasingly fierce, it becomes more and more important for members of the supply chain to maximize market sales and improve the economic benefits of all parties through altruistic cooperation. Considering the complex relationship between online and offline retail channels, this paper proposes a competitive–cooperative strategy based on altruistic behavior for the dual-channel supply chain, by applying the theory of the co-competition game. First, we introduce the problem with respect to the relationship between online and offline retail channels, and establish the competitive–cooperative strategy model based on altruistic behavior. Then, we prove the equilibrium strategy for existence and stability of the proposed model through mathematical deduction. Next, a multi-object optimal model is excluded by applying the Pareto principle, and the NSGA-II-based algorithm is obtained to acquire the Nash equilibrium point. Finally, we present the case testing results, which indicate that the proposed model is robust and can improve the channel efficiency of the supply chain.

Effects of strategy switching and network topology on decision-making in multi-agent systems

To study why the altruistic cooperation can emerge and maintain among self-interested individuals, researchers across several disciplines have made contributions for the solutions of this fascinating problem. Among this, a most-often used framework to describe cooperative dilemma is the evolutionary game theory. In traditional settings, an ideal hypothesis that individuals can feasibly obtain related partners' pay-offs for strategy updating is often adopted. However, considering the impracticality in acquiring accurate pay-offs of referential objects at each round of interaction, we propose switching probability which is independent of pay-offs and denotes the willingness of any individual shifts to another strategy. Here we provide results for the evolutionary dynamics driven by the switching probability in a three-strategy game model, played by the fully connected populations. The findings inform the befitting design of switching probabilities which maximally promote cooperation. We also derive general results that characterise the interaction of the three strategies: coexistence of multiple strategies or domination by some strategy.

Reproductive Dominance Strategies in Insect Social Parasites.

In eusocial insects, the high cost of altruistic cooperation between colony members has favoured the evolution of cheaters that exploit social services of other species. In the most extreme forms of insect social parasitism, which has evolved multiple times across most social lineages, obligately parasitic species invade the nests of social species and manipulate the workforce of their hosts to rear their own reproductive offspring. As alien species that have lost their own sociality, these social parasites still face social challenges to infiltrate and control their hosts, thus providing independent replicates for understanding the mechanisms essential to social dominance. This review compares socially parasitic insect lineages to find general trends and build a hypothetical framework for the means by which social parasites achieve reproductive dominance. It highlights how host social organization and social parasite life history traits may impact the way they achieve reproductive supremacy, including the potential role of chemical cues. The review discusses the coevolutionary dynamics between host and parasite during this process. Altogether, this review emphasizes the value of social parasites for understanding social evolution and the need for future research in this area.

The great Indian joint families of free-ranging dogs.

Cooperative breeding is an excellent example of cooperation in social groups. Domestic dogs have evolved from cooperatively hunting and breeding ancestors but have adapted to a facultatively social scavenging lifestyle on streets, and solitary living in human homes. Pets typically breed and reproduce under human supervision, but free-ranging dogs can provide insights into the natural breeding ecology of dogs. We conducted a five year-long field based behavioural study on parental care of free-ranging dogs in India. 23 mother-litter units, belonging to 15 groups were observed, which revealed the presence of widespread allo-parenting by both adult males and females. While all the females were known to be related to the pups receiving care, the relatedness with the males could not be determined. Hence, we coined the term “putative father” for caregiving males. Allomothers provided significantly less care than the mothers, but the putative fathers showed comparable levels of care with the mothers. Mothers invested more effort in nursing and allogrooming, while the putative fathers played and protected more. Our observations provide support for both the “benefit-of-philopatry” and “assured fitness returns” hypotheses. Free-ranging dogs are not cooperative breeders like wolves but are rather communal breeders; their breeding biology bearing interesting similarities with the human joint family system. This breeding strategy is likely to have played an important role in increasing pup survival in a stochastic environment and helping to adapt to living among humans during the domestication of dogs.

From Russia, with tactic?

Russia will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Football has changed and new space-time concepts have emerged in recent years to help understand the performance of a football team. We need analyse football from a holistic perspective. Every team of football is understanding like a superorganism with two fundamental characteristics: division of labour and a communication system. In the future new concept, altruistic cooperation, will help know a complexity in football.

How humans cooperate and punish.

Many studies have shown that human cooperation is fostered by altruistic cooperation and the altruistic punishment of freeriders. A study now shows significant asymmetries between cooperation in the initial provision of a social good and cooperation in the maintenance of an established social good.