Stochastic heterogeneous interaction promotes cooperation in spatial prisoner's dilemma game

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 23;9(4):e95169. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095169. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Previous studies mostly investigate player's cooperative behavior as affected by game time-scale or individual diversity. In this paper, by involving both time-scale and diversity simultaneously, we explore the effect of stochastic heterogeneous interaction. In our model, the occurrence of game interaction between each pair of linked player obeys a random probability, which is further described by certain distributions. Simulations on a 4-neighbor square lattice show that the cooperation level is remarkably promoted when stochastic heterogeneous interaction is considered. The results are then explained by investigating the mean payoffs, the mean boundary payoffs and the transition probabilities between cooperators and defectors. We also show some typical snapshots and evolution time series of the system. Finally, the 8-neighbor square lattice and BA scale-free network results indicate that the stochastic heterogeneous interaction can be robust against different network topologies. Our work may sharpen the understanding of the joint effect of game time-scale and individual diversity on spatial games.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Game Theory*
  • Models, Theoretical

Grants and funding

This work has been supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, grant number: 61305148/F030707. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.