Evolution of cooperation in N-player social dilemmas: The importance of being mobile

Abstract

This paper addresses issues regarding the emergence of cooperation in evolutionary, spatial game-theoretic simulations. In the model considered, agents participate in a social dilemma with their neighbours and have the ability to move in response to environmental stimuli. Both the movement strategies and the game strategies (whether to cooperate or not) are evolved. In particular, we present results that compare the outcomes using the classical two player prisoner's dilemma and a generalised N-player prisoner's dilemma. We also explore the effect that agent density (the number of agents present per cell in the world) has on the evolution of cooperation in the environment. Finally, we discuss the movement strategies that are evolved for both cooperative and noncooperative strategies.