Sex, the prisoner's dilemma game, and the evolutionary inevitability of cooperation

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dc.contributor.authorKoeslag J.H.
dc.date.accessioned2011-05-15T15:59:51Z
dc.date.available2011-05-15T15:59:51Z
dc.date.issued1997
dc.description.abstractIt will be a universal feature of sexual populations that individuals prefer mates with typical rather than rare characteristics - essentially because most mutations reduce fitness. This is termed koinophilia. Koinophilia will also apply to behaviour. In particular, individuals will prefer mates that behave in social interactions that follow whatever rules are common in that population. Suppose that individuals interact in situations which can be represented by the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game (IPD). If koinophilia is ignored, previous authors have shown that it is hard to find an evolutionarily stable strategy, and that strategies cycle indefinitely. However, if koinophilia is included, it has the effect of increasing the fitness of whatever happens to be the common strategy. This, in turn, has the effect of stabilizing almost any strategy (that has, for whatever reason, become the local norm) in the IPD. Different, partially isolated groups will thus become evolutionarily trapped in different behaviours, which are defended against alternative strategies originating through mutation or immigration. Groups that happen, by chance, to reach a cooperative strategy will be fitter, as groups, than those that reach defection (even though, in one-to-one encounters, it is the selfish individual who always wins). The ultimate result will be the replacement of selfish groups by cooperative groups.
dc.description.versionArticle
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Theoretical Biology
dc.identifier.citation189
dc.identifier.citation1
dc.identifier.issn225193
dc.identifier.other10.1006/jtbi.1997.0496
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/11397
dc.subjectcooperation
dc.subjectevolution
dc.subjectkoinophilia
dc.subjectprisoner's dilemma
dc.subjectsex
dc.subjectarticle
dc.subjectassortative mating
dc.subjectcooperation
dc.subjectevolution
dc.subjectgene mutation
dc.subjectpriority journal
dc.subjectsocial interaction
dc.subjectAnimals
dc.subjectChoice Behavior
dc.subjectComputer Simulation
dc.subjectEvolution
dc.subjectGame Theory
dc.subjectSexual Behavior, Animal
dc.subjectStochastic Processes
dc.titleSex, the prisoner's dilemma game, and the evolutionary inevitability of cooperation
dc.typeArticle
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