Cooperative Behavior Research Articles

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of cooperative antimicrobial resistance in a population of fluctuating volume and size

Abstract Antimicrobial resistance to drugs (AMR), a global threat to human and animal health, is often regarded as resulting from a cooperative behaviour. Moreover, microbes generally evolve in volatile environments that, together with demographic fluctuations (birth and death events), drastically alter population size and strain survival. Motivated by the need to better understand the evolution of AMR, we study a population of time-varying size consisting of two competing strains, one drug-resistant and one drug-sensitive, subject to demographic and environmental variability. This is modelled by a binary carrying capacity randomly switching between mild and harsh environmental conditions, and driving the fluctuating volume (total amount of nutrients and antimicrobials at fixed concentration), and thus the size of the community (number of resistant and sensitive cells). We assume that AMR is a shared public good when the concentration of resistant cells exceeds a fixed {\it concentration cooperation threshold}, above which the sensitive strain has a growth advantage, whereas resistant cells dominate below it. Using computational means, and devising an analytical treatment (built on suitable quenched and annealed averaging procedures), we fully characterise the influence of fluctuations on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of AMR, and notably obtain specific strain fixation and long-lasting coexistence probabilities as a function of the environmental variation rate and cooperation threshold. We find that microbial strains tend to coexistence, but demographic fluctuations eventually lead to the extinction of resistant or sensitive cells for small or large values of the concentration cooperation threshold, respectively. This also holds for dynamic environments, whose specific properties determine the extinction timescale.

Neural Diversity and Decisions

Abstract Purpose Differences in choices provide a window into the variety of human preferences and behaviors. Most non-trivial decisions recruit multiple regions of the brain with activity that shows substantial variation across individuals and also depends on personality traits and attitudes. Methods The present study measured nine physiologic factors and collected 15 types of psychological data while participants made decisions in standard tasks measuring risk aversion, patience, altruism, cooperation, generosity, trust, and trustworthiness. Robust predictors were defined as those that were statistically significant in both forward and backward stepwise regressions using all the collected independent variables. Results The analysis showed that multiple measures of physiologic stress decrease cooperative behaviors while testosterone consistently increased antisocial behaviors. In addition, cognitive abilities robustly increased patience but decreased cooperation, while those more satisfied with their lives were more trustworthy. Participants scoring high on the personality trait of imagination were shown to be less altruistic and generous, while neuroticism increased prosociality. Conclusion This study identified key drivers of behaviors that should be measured in decision-making experiments in order to capture the multiple factors that affect choices. We conclude with suggestions on how to establish causal relationships between the identified factors and decisions.

Developing athletes into cooperative learners: the potential in viewing coaches as educators and coaching as teaching

ABSTRACT Talent development environments are usually group-based, meaning athletes comprise each other’s learning context. Consequently, athletes’ ability to learn with and from each other is essential. This implies that there is a key role for coaches to play in cultivating reciprocal, cooperative athletes and creating talent environments in which participants can ‘learn to learn’. The aim of this study was to create knowledge on day-to-day coaching conduct that supports the development of athletes’ reciprocal abilities. Observations of 75 h of football (soccer) lessons within the Swedish Football Association’s school sports programme – a cornerstone of the FA’s talent development system, located in upper secondary schools – were carried out over the course of three school semesters, and included in-depth interviews with the teacher-coaches. Data were analysed using the five key teaching pillars within a cooperative learning approach: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, interpersonal skills and group processing. Findings show how teacher-coaches engage in activities that focus on organization of lessons and structuring of group work to create situations where individuals are motivated to learn, but also motivated to support other group members’ learning. Thereby, teacher-coaches place more emphasis on positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction. In contrast, findings also show how teacher-coaches to a lesser extent perform coaching conduct associated with lesson content that has the potential to develop the skills and abilities required to participate in and benefit from group work – interpersonal skills, and group processing. This means that while teacher-coaches seem well-equipped to create learning environments that support reciprocal learning, they may benefit from challenging the role of the coach as an expert and tackle the preconceptions around cooperative behaviours that athletes bring from club football contexts. Taken together, these findings point to the need for a better understanding of overlapping learning sites within talent systems.

Consequentialism, Collective Action, and Blame

Abstract Several important questions in applied ethics – like whether to switch to a plant-based diet, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or vote in elections – seem to share the following structure: if enough people ‘cooperate’ and become vegan for example, we bring about a better outcome; but what you do as an individual seems to make no difference whatsoever. Such collective action problems are often thought to pose a serious challenge to consequentialism. In response, I defend the Reactive Attitude Approach: rather than focus only on the deontic status of (non-)cooperative acts – as existing consequentialist responses mostly do – consequentialists should also focus on when to praise or blame individuals. For example, even if your veganism does not change the overall outcome, consequentialists might still recommend praising you for your cooperative behavior. I make a consequentialist case for including praise and blame in our ethical practices around collective action and argue that doing so helps us capture important intuitions. I develop and defend these arguments by drawing on recent instrumentalist theories of blame and responsibility.

Red-billed blue magpie optimizer: a novel metaheuristic algorithm for 2D/3D UAV path planning and engineering design problems

Numerical optimization, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) path planning, and engineering design problems are fundamental to the development of artificial intelligence. Traditional methods show limitations in dealing with these complex nonlinear models. To address these challenges, the swarm intelligence algorithm is introduced as a metaheuristic method and effectively implemented. However, existing technology exhibits drawbacks such as slow convergence speed, low precision, and poor robustness. In this paper, we propose a novel metaheuristic approach called the Red-billed Blue Magpie Optimizer (RBMO), inspired by the cooperative and efficient predation behaviors of red-billed blue magpies. The mathematical model of RBMO was established by simulating the searching, chasing, attacking prey, and food storage behaviors of the red-billed blue magpie. To demonstrate RBMO’s performance, we first conduct qualitative analyses through convergence behavior experiments. Next, RBMO’s numerical optimization capabilities are substantiated using CEC2014 (Dim = 10, 30, 50, and 100) and CEC2017 (Dim = 10, 30, 50, and 100) suites, consistently achieving the best Friedman mean rank. In UAV path planning applications (two-dimensional and three − dimensional), RBMO obtains preferable solutions, demonstrating its effectiveness in solving NP-hard problems. Additionally, in five engineering design problems, RBMO consistently yields the minimum cost, showcasing its advantage in practical problem-solving. We compare our experimental results with three categories of widely recognized algorithms: (1) advanced variants, (2) recently proposed algorithms, and (3) high-performance optimizers, including CEC winners.

Involvement of prelimbic cortex neurons and related circuits in the acquisition of a cooperative learning by pairs of rats

AbstractSocial behaviors such as cooperation are crucial for mammals. A deeper knowledge of the neuronal mechanisms underlying cooperation can be beneficial for people suffering from pathologies with impaired social behavior. Our aim was to study the brain activity when two animals synchronize their behavior to obtain a mutual reinforcement. In a previous work, we showed that the activity of the prelimbic cortex (PrL) was enhanced during cooperation in rats, especially in the ones leading most cooperative trials (leader rats). In this study, we investigated the specific cells in the PrL contributing to cooperative behaviors. To this end, we collected rats’ brains at key moments of the learning process to analyze the levels of c-FOS expression in the main cellular groups of the PrL. Leader rats showed increased c-FOS activity in cells expressing D1 receptors during cooperation. Besides, we analyzed the levels of anxiety, dominance, and locomotor behavior, finding that leader rats are in general less anxious and less dominant than followers. We also recorded local field potentials (LFPs) from the PrL, the nucleus accumbens septi (NAc), and the basolateral amygdala (BLA). A spectral analysis showed that delta activity in PrL and NAc increased when rats cooperated, while BLA activity in delta and theta bands decreased considerably during cooperation. The PrL and NAc also increased their connectivity in the high theta band during cooperation. Thus, the present work identifies the specific PrL cell types engaged in this behavior, as well as the way this information is propagated to selected downstream brain regions (BLA, NAc).

Dogs understand the role of a human partner in a cooperative task

Humans are exceptionally flexible in cooperation, partly due to our ability to recognize the roles of cooperative partners. While some non-human animals understand the need for a partner in such interactions, it is unclear whether they grasp the consequences of their partner’s actions and adjust accordingly. Previous studies utilizing economic games with non-human animals yielded mixed results. We investigated dogs, known for their close cooperation with humans, in a stag hunt game. Dogs could cooperate for better rewards or defect for lower ones, while their human partners would either cooperate, never cooperate, or act randomly. We control for attraction to food, side bias, and local enhancement. Dogs were more likely to coordinate with their partners when it led to better rewards, suggesting that they understood their partner’s actions. By highlighting this cognitive skill in dogs, we advance our knowledge of the intricate mechanisms driving cooperative behavior in non-human animals.

Pedestrian evacuations with imitation of cooperative behavior

Pedestrian evacuations with imitation of cooperative behavior

Evidence for socially influenced and potentially actively coordinated cooperation by bumblebees.

Cooperation is common in animals, yet the specific mechanisms driving collaborative behaviour in different species remain unclear. We investigated the proximate mechanisms underlying the cooperative behaviour of bumblebees in two different tasks, where bees had to simultaneously push a block in an arena or a door at the end of a tunnel for access to reward. In both tasks, when their partner's entry into the arena/tunnel was delayed, bees took longer to first push the block/door compared with control bees that learned to push alone. In the tunnel task, just before gaining access to reward, bees were more likely to face towards their partner than expected by chance or compared with controls. These results show that bumblebees' cooperative behaviour is not simply a by-product of individual efforts but is socially influenced. We discuss how bees' turning behaviours, e.g. turning around before first reaching the door when their partner was delayed and turning back towards the door in response to seeing their partner heading towards the door, suggest the potential for active coordination. However, because these behaviours could also be interpreted as combined responses to social and secondary reinforcement cues, future studies are needed to help clarify whether bumblebees truly use active coordination.

Personality, Strategies and Game Moves Linked to Prosocial Behaviors: A Statistical Discourse Analysis

As no study has systematically theorized and empirically tested an ecological model of students’ cooperative behaviors during game-based learning, this study moves toward doing so by modeling multiple levels of antecedents of students’ prosocial behaviors during game play. Specifically, we propose a theoretical model of how player personality, players’ personality composition, and recent sequences of strategies or game moves affect the likelihood of prosocial behavior in each turn of talk. Then, we empirically tested our model on 8,432 turns of talk by 17 adolescents in eight face to face games via statistical discourse analysis.Players who were agreeable, conscientious, and patient (koalas) showed prosocial behaviors more often. Meanwhile groups with only one agreeable person, only one extrovert, or only one conformist showed fewer prosocial behaviors. Furthermore, recent strategies such as advise, lend resources, or consent were more likely to precede a prosocial behavior. By contrast, recent aggressive moves reduced the likelihood of an immediate prosocial behavior. For example, a sequence of consecutive attacks sharply reduced the likelihood of a prosocial behavior. Furthermore, interactions among these attributes also affected the likelihood of prosocial behaviors.These results contribute to and help integrate social identity theory and social learning theory by moving toward an ecological explanatory model with player personalities, player composition, sequences of strategies and game moves, and their interactions. These insights (a) help bridge the gap in our understanding of how students act and react in strategic activities, and (b) inform game design and instructional practices seeking to foster prosocial behaviors and environments.

Avatars and organizational knowledge sharing

We study how organizational knowledge sharing behavior is affected by avatar use during computer-mediated communication (CMC) with an unknown co-worker. Experimental results from two ethnically different samples provide theory-consistent evidence that outgroup discrimination—manifested as refusal to share knowledge—can get magnified in the ‘virtual world’ when avatars are used for self-representation. In supplemental analysis, we use eye-tracking data to provide preliminary evidence for behavioral differences—in terms of gaze fixation—when knowledge sharing requests accompanied by avatar profiles as opposed to photo profiles are processed and further explore how individuals' choice of using avatars vs. photographs for their online profile affects their co-workers' perception. Our study contributes to understanding cooperative organizational behavior in the virtual space. Managing cooperative organizational behavior in the virtual space is becoming increasingly important as digital work further penetrates contemporary work arrangements.

Evolutionary Game Analysis on Cooperative Behavior of Major Projects’ Technology Innovation Subjects under General Contracting Mode

Major projects are the important platform for enhancing a country’s comprehensive national power and strengthening its capacity for independent innovation. Although major projects in China have made remarkable achievements, willingness to cooperate and innovate has not achieved the desired target. In this paper, the evolutionary game model of cooperative innovation behavior of general contractors and subcontractors is constructed by considering reputational factors. Through theoretical derivation, the influence of the distribution ratio of collaborative innovation benefit, spillover technology absorption capacity, and reputation discounting coefficient on innovation behavior is analyzed. Finally, MATLAB software is used to simulate the dynamic evolution process of strategy selection. The results show that (1) a reasonable benefit distribution coefficient can promote the evolution of innovation behavior in a positive direction; (2) both the reduction of innovation cost and the increase of spillover technology absorption capacity can make the innovation subject more inclined to choose the active collaborative innovation strategy; and (3) it is the higher-than-threshold reputation loss that can effectively inhibit the “free-rider” behavior. The research conclusions and managerial implications can provide reference for improving the willingness to cooperate in major projects’ technology innovation.

Strategic alliances and shared auditors

Strategic alliances are voluntary corporate arrangements for mutual benefit. Although alliances are common as an alternative to M&As, they require cooperation between alliance partners who continue to operate as independent companies. Thus, relational risk—the probability and consequences of unsatisfactory cooperation or opportunistic behavior—is inherent in alliances and a major determinant of alliance success. In this paper, we examine and find that alliance announcement CARs are higher for companies sharing the same auditor with their alliance partner. Further, our findings suggest that the shared auditor effect is stronger for alliances where potential relational risk between alliance partners is greater. Our findings hold when we use “withdrawn” (i.e., the withdrawal of an announced alliance before its start date) as an alternative, albeit inverse, measure of alliance success. Collectively, we provide novel evidence which suggests that auditors add shareholder value by playing a matchmaking role in alliance formation, building inter-company trust and mitigating relational risk by facilitating the sharing of non-financial information between potential alliance partners among their audit clients.

Resource allocation of cognitive relay networks under continuous transmission mechanism

This paper considers the joint power allocation, path selection and subcarrier pairing design of cognitive radio cooperative networks, where the transmission power of secondary users is limited by its own power budget and the tolerable interference threshold of primary users. In particular, a continuous transmission mechanism rather than intermittent emission, leading to severe signal interference between primary and secondary users, as well as mutual interference between secondary users, is taken into account. This cooperative cognitive radio network is seen as an improvement in the sense that the source transmitter can continuously transmit symbols without silence. Although traditional cooperative network technology has long been applied to the cognitive radio field and it has been proposed to allow continuous transmission signals by source transmitter, the deployment of such improved cooperative behavior in cognitive radio networks has not been reported yet. This improvement assumption may render serious mutual interference between the relay station and the destination receiver, and the signal interference borne by the primary user will also exceed the threshold value, if there is no elaborate signal design and resource scheduling. In order to make full use of the available resources, this paper presents the closed-form solution of the power allocation, the decision criteria of the path selection and the subcarrier pairing technique for the problem of maximization of the sum rate of secondary users in such networks under the dual constraints of the power budget and the interference threshold. Simulation results show that the continuous transmission behavior at the source significantly outperforms the traditional switching back and forth between on and off.

Practicing cooperative skills shapes brain-wide networks

Humans and other primates skillfully navigate the complex cognitive interplay of cooperative behaviors. However, the neural resources we rely on to do so are poorly understood. Franch et al. found that neuronal activity in a visual-frontal domain general cortical network is shaped during the training of a cooperative behavior to highlight relevant sensory inputs.

Social restructuring during harsh environmental conditions promotes cooperative behaviour in a songbird.

Cooperation may emerge from intrinsic factors such as social structure and extrinsic factors such as environmental conditions. Although these factors might reinforce or counteract each other, their interaction remains unexplored in animal populations. Studies on multilevel societies suggest a link between social structure, environmental conditions and individual investment in cooperative behaviours. These societies exhibit flexible social configurations, with stable groups that overlap and associate hierarchically. Structure can be seasonal, with upper-level units appearing only during specific seasons, and lower-level units persisting year-round. This offers an opportunity to investigate how cooperation relates to social structure and environmental conditions. Here, we study the seasonal multilevel society of superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus), observing individual responses to experimental playback of conspecific distress calls. Individuals engaged more in helping behaviour and less in aggressive/territorial song during the harsher non-breeding season compared to the breeding season. The increase in cooperation was greater for breeding group members than for members of the same community, the upper social unit, comprised of distinct breeding groups in association. Results suggest that the interaction between social structure and environmental conditions drives the seasonal switch in cooperation, supporting the hypothesis that multilevel societies can emerge to increase cooperation during harsh environmental conditions.

Exploiting cooperative pathogen behaviour for enhanced antibiotic potency: A Trojan horse approach.

Antimicrobial resistance poses an escalating global threat, rendering traditional drug development approaches increasingly ineffective. Thus, novel alternatives to antibiotic-based therapies are needed. Exploiting pathogen cooperation as a strategy for combating resistant infections has been proposed but lacks experimental validation. Empirical findings demonstrate the successful invasion of cooperating populations by non-cooperating cheats, effectively reducing virulence in vitro and in vivo. The idea of harnessing cooperative behaviours for therapeutic benefit involves exploitation of the invasive capabilities of cheats to drive medically beneficial traits into infecting populations of cells. In this study, we employed Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing cheats to drive antibiotic sensitivity into both in vitro and in vivo resistant populations. We demonstrated the successful invasion of cheats, followed by increased antibiotic effectiveness against cheat-invaded populations, thereby establishing an experimental proof of principle for the potential application of the Trojan strategy in fighting resistant infections.

The impact of relationship stickiness and memory on the evolution of individual behavior

This study investigates the dynamics of individual behavior and decision-making processes shaped by changes in personal relationships and preferences, using the prisoner’s dilemma game as a framework. The research focuses on the effects of relationship stickiness and memory on behavior evolution and network structural changes, considering two types of initial relationship networks. The findings indicate that as the number of games increases, there is a general trend of gradual increases in the average relationship stickiness, topological changes, and network heterogeneity. Notably, networks with greater initial heterogeneity, such as scale-free networks, better facilitate individual cooperation. Contrary to previous studies, the stable density of cooperators does not consistently increase with higher temptation gains. This suggests that individuals’ adaptive strategies, which include changing neighbors, can foster cooperation even under greater temptations. Additionally, an increase in the sensitivity coefficient correlates with increases in the final cooperator density, network heterogeneity, and topological changes. As individual memory and temptation gain rise, network heterogeneity measures tend to increase, while measures of topological change generally decrease. A sharp decline in the stable density of cooperators coincides almost synchronously with a rapid increase in network heterogeneity and a decrease in topological changes. This research reveals how relationship stickiness and memory impact individual cooperation, enhancing our understanding of the underlying mechanisms driving cooperative behaviors in complex networks.

Indirect reciprocity undermines indirect reciprocity destabilizing large-scale cooperation

Previous models suggest that indirect reciprocity (reputation) can stabilize large-scale human cooperation [K. Panchanathan, R. Boyd, Nature 432, 499-502 (2004)]. The logic behind these models and experiments [J. Gross et al., Sci. Adv. 9, eadd8289 (2023) and O. P. Hauser, A. Hendriks, D. G. Rand, M. A. Nowak, Sci. Rep. 6, 36079 (2016)] is that a strategy in which individuals conditionally aid others based on their reputation for engaging in costly cooperative behavior serves as a punishment that incentivizes large-scale cooperation without the second-order free-rider problem. However, these models and experiments fail to account for individuals belonging to multiple groups with reputations that can be in conflict. Here, we extend these models such that individuals belong to a smaller, "local" group embedded within a larger, "global" group. This introduces competing strategies for conditionally aiding others based on their cooperative behavior in the local or global group. Our analyses reveal that the reputation for cooperation in the smaller local group can undermine cooperation in the larger global group, even when the theoretical maximum payoffs are higher in the larger global group. This model reveals that indirect reciprocity alone is insufficient for stabilizing large-scale human cooperation because cooperation at one scale can be considered defection at another. These results deepen the puzzle of large-scale human cooperation.

It takes two: examining the dynamic nature of cooperative behavior in adolescents.

Cooperating with those around us is an important facet of functioning in modern-day society. Forming successful cooperative relationships requires trust, reciprocity, and other interpersonal skills that continue to develop during adolescence. This study examined the dynamic nature of how trust is formed and broken among 248 adolescents (Males = 110, M Age = 15.1 years) throughout an iterative cooperative task (i.e., the Trust Game) and the interindividual differences that alter the success of their relationships. In our study, adolescents from the same classroom were anonymously paired and played a 10-trial version of the Trust Game, which examines trust and reciprocity. We found that trust is formed in the first half of the game and decreases as the threat of defection nears in the last trial. As the game progressed, the relationship between trial number and investments on the subsequent trial was mediated by percent return (ab = -0.09, 95% CI = [-0.15, -0.02]). Importantly, this relationship was moderated by social skills (p = 0.003) and impulsivity (p = 0.001), such that increases in either were associated with decreased percent return and investments on future trials. Overall, we found that cooperation is an adaptive behavior which requires trust and reciprocity, and adolescents need to exhibit both of these behaviors to have fruitful interactions. These findings suggest that interventions to help students think about their partner's perspective and stress the longer-term nature of interactions with peers would foster successful cooperation in social situations.