In April 2016 Manchester eScholar was replaced by the University of Manchester’s new Research Information Management System, Pure. In the autumn the University’s research outputs will be available to search and browse via a new Research Portal. Until then the University’s full publication record can be accessed via a temporary portal and the old eScholar content is available to search and browse via this archive.

Related resources

Search for item elsewhere

University researcher(s)

Academic department(s)

Network Fluctuation as an Explanatory Factor in the Evolution of Cooperation

Miller, Steven Graham

[Thesis]. Manchester, UK: The University of Manchester; 2017.

Access to files

FULL-TEXT.PDF (pdf)

Abstract

Network reciprocity describes the emergence of cooperative behaviour where interactions are constrained by incomplete network connectivity. It has been widely studied as an enabling mechanism for the emergence of cooperation and may be of particular interest in explaining cooperative behaviours amongst unrelated individuals or in organisms of lower cognitive abilities. Research in this area has been galvanised by the finding that heterogeneous topology promotes cooperation. Consequently there has been a strong focus on scale-free networks; however, such networks typically presuppose formative mechanisms based on preferential attachment, a process which has no general explanation. This assumption may give rise to models of cooperation that implicitly encode capabilities only generally found in more complex forms of life, thus constraining their relevance with regards to the real world.By considering the connectivity of populations to be dynamic, rather than fixed, cooperation can exist at lower levels of heterogeneity. This thesis demonstrates that a model of network fluctuation, based on random rather than preferential growth, supports cooperative behaviour in simulated social networks of only moderate heterogeneity, thus overcoming difficulties associated with explanations based on scale-free networks. In addition to illustrating the emergence and persistence of cooperation in existing networks, we also demonstrate how cooperation may evolve in networks during their growth. In particular our model supports the emergence of cooperation in populations where it is originally absent. The combined impact of our findings increases the generality of reciprocity as an explanation for cooperation in networks.