The Evolution of Cooperation: An ABM with Tags and Movement
Given the option to either cooperate or defect, organisms should defect every single time. At least, that's what game theory tells us. But strangely enough, they don't. Instead, cooperation is ubiquitous in all kinds of populations -- from insects up to mammals. Why?
In this talk, MDSC Senior Tommy Clark will fortify the argument based on ethnocentrism -- or the inheritable tendency to favor one's in-group -- as a leading theory for explaining this evolutionary anomaly. By improving the canonical agent-based model of ethnocentrism through the addition of movement, we bring the model outcomes into alignment with expectations across a wide range of conditions, and show that ethnocentrism is a driving force behind the evolution of cooperation in populations, even those with minimal cognition and bounded rationality.