scholarly journals Playing soft with cooperators emerges as a moral norm and promotes cooperation in evolutionary games

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Salahshour

In many biological populations, individuals face a complex strategic setting, where they need to make strategic decisions over a diverse set of issues. To study evolution in such a complex strategic context, here we introduce evolutionary models where individuals play two games with different structures. Individuals decide upon their strategy in a second game based on their knowledge of their opponent's strategy in the first game. By considering a case where the first game is a social dilemma, we show that, as long as the second game has an asymmetric Nash equilibrium, the system possesses a spontaneous symmetry-breaking phase transition above which the symmetry between cooperation and defection breaks. A set of cooperation supporting moral norms emerges according to which cooperation stands out as a valuable trait. Notably, the moral system also brings a more efficient allocation of resources in the second game. This observation suggests a moral system has two different roles: Promotion of cooperation, which is against individuals' self-interest but beneficial for the population, and promotion of organization and order, which is at both the population's and the individual's self-interest. Interestingly, the latter acts like a Trojan horse: Once established out of individuals' self-interest, it brings the former with itself. Furthermore, we show that in structured populations, recognition noise can have a surprisingly positive effect on the evolution of moral norms and facilitates cooperation in the Snow Drift game.

2004 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjolein de Best-Waldhober ◽  
Carsten K.W. De Dreu ◽  
Daan van Knippenberg

Coordination between individuals and between teams: the importance of insight in social dilemmas Coordination between individuals and between teams: the importance of insight in social dilemmas Marjolein de Best-Waldhober, Carsten K.W. De Dreu & Daan van Knippenberg, Gedrag & Organisatie, Volume 17, June 2004, nr. 3, pp. 187-203. In the context of a social dilemma, in which turn taking serves collective outcomes and only in the long run self-interest and personal outcomes, we studied long-term coordination, i.e. the alternation of sacrifice to achieve maximum joint outcomes. In particular, we studied the differences between individuals and dyads (two person groups) in coordination situations. Recent studies that compared individual with group negotiation seem to lead to opposite predictions. One paradigm predicts groups will perform better, because they outweigh individuals cognitively. The other paradigm predicts individuals will perform better, because they tend to have less fear and greed than groups. Results from the current study primarily support the first explanation. Dyads were less influenced by the complexity of the situation structure than individuals, because they have a better understanding of the long term structure of the situation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiko Tanaka ◽  
Tsuyoshi Nihonsugi ◽  
Fumio Ohtake ◽  
Masahiko Haruno

Abstract The most promising way to prevent the explosive spread of COVID-19 infection is to achieve herd immunity through vaccination. It is therefore important to motivate those who are less willing to be vaccinated. To address this issue, we conducted an online survey of 6232 Japanese people to investigate age- and gender- dependent differences in attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination and the underlying psychological processes. We asked participants to read one of nine different messages about COVID-19 vaccination and rate their willingness to be vaccinated. We also collected their 17 social personality trait scores and demographic information. We found that males 10-20 years old showed the minimum willingness to be vaccinated. We also found that prosocial traits are the driving force for young people, but the motivation in older people also depends on risk aversion and self-interest. Furthermore, an analysis of 9 different messages demonstrated that for young people (particularly males), the message emphasizing the majority’s intention to vaccinate and scientific evidence for the safety of the vaccination had the strongest positive effect on the willingness to be vaccinated, suggesting that the herding effect arising from the “majority + scientific evidence” message nudges young people to show their prosocial nature in action.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiko Tanaka ◽  
Tsuyoshi Nihonsugi ◽  
Fumio Ohtake ◽  
Masahiko Haruno

AbstractThe most promising way to prevent the explosive spread of COVID-19 infection is to achieve herd immunity through vaccination. It is therefore important to motivate those who are less willing to be vaccinated. To address this issue, we conducted an online survey of 6232 Japanese people to investigate age- and gender-dependent differences in attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination and the underlying psychological processes. We asked participants to read one of nine different messages about COVID-19 vaccination and rate their willingness to be vaccinated. We also collected their 17 social personality trait scores and demographic information. We found that males 10–20 years old were least willing to be vaccinated. We also found that prosocial traits are the driving force for young people, but the motivation in older people also depends on risk aversion and self-interest. Furthermore, an analysis of 9 different messages demonstrated that for young people (particularly males), the message emphasizing the majority’s intention to vaccinate and scientific evidence for the safety of the vaccination had the strongest positive effect on the willingness to be vaccinated, suggesting that the “majority + scientific evidence” message nudges young people to show their prosocial nature in action.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3(62)) ◽  
pp. 33-38
Author(s):  
Tatiana Nikitchina ◽  
Tatiana Manoli ◽  
Olena Miroshnichenko ◽  
Hanna Korkach ◽  
Olena Kotuzaki ◽  
...  

The object of research is fish culinary products in the jelly pouring of the menu of conceptual restaurants. The subject of research is the consumer characteristics of gelling fish broth for culinary products based on sensory characteristics. The study used methods for determining the consumer characteristics of fish culinary products based on physical, chemical, aesthetic and sensory analysis. Methods for the preliminary preparation of hydrocolloids as structure-forming agents for the preparation of gelling culinary products with the study of the parameters of the jelly formation process are proposed. The developed ingredient composition of fish culinary products based on low methoxylated pectin and sodium alginate improves the consumer characteristics of the finished dish. This ensures the implementation of strategic decisions in the food industry through the introduction of innovative technologies and the release of products with new consumer and functional properties. It is the new ingredient composition of the fish culinary products in the pouring that opens the priorities in the creation of the wellness products industry with the aim of improving the health of consumers. The active elements of algae are absorbed almost completely through a chemical composition close to that of human plasma. As a result, algae are able to compensate for the lack of elements and contribute to the normalization of metabolism. The use of low-esterified pectin is due to its structure-forming, therapeutic and prophylactic, sorption, antibacterial properties, which are an alternative to antibiotics and synthetic preservatives to prevent bacterial spoilage. The use of dietary supplements based on sodium alginate and pectin in food products provide an adjustable texture with new rheological and functional properties, which have a positive effect on the commodity performance of finished products for promotion on the market of healthy food restaurants. On the basis of the sensory indicator, rational parameters of the recipe of fish culinary products in jelly pouring were determined to obtain a transparent, stable, homogeneous elastic consistency, which will expand the range of the wellness menu of restaurants of the Wellness concept.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3757
Author(s):  
Anna Laura Huckelba ◽  
Paul A. M. Van Lange

There is strong scientific consensus that the climate is drastically changing due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and that these changes are largely due to human behavior. Scientific estimates posit that by 2050, we will begin to experience some of the most damaging consequences of climate change, which will only worsen as the world becomes more populated and resources become scarcer. Considerable progress has been made to explore technological solutions, yet useful insights from a psychological perspective are still lacking. Understanding whether and how individuals and groups cope with environmental dilemmas is the first step to combatting climate change. The key challenge is how can we reduce a tendency to inaction and to understand the psychological obstacles for behavioral change that reduce climate change. We provide a social dilemma analysis of climate change, emphasizing three important ingredients: people need to recognize their own impact on the climate, there is conflict between self-interest and collective interests, and there is a temporal dilemma involving a conflict between short-term and longer-term interest. Acknowledging these features, we provide a comprehensive overview of psychological mechanisms that support inaction, and close by discussing potential solutions. In particular, we offer recommendations at the level of individuals, communities, and governments.


2008 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gergely J. Szöllősi ◽  
Imre Derényi

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (94) ◽  
pp. 20140077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinming Du ◽  
Bin Wu ◽  
Philipp M. Altrock ◽  
Long Wang

On studying strategy update rules in the framework of evolutionary game theory, one can differentiate between imitation processes and aspiration-driven dynamics. In the former case, individuals imitate the strategy of a more successful peer. In the latter case, individuals adjust their strategies based on a comparison of their pay-offs from the evolutionary game to a value they aspire, called the level of aspiration. Unlike imitation processes of pairwise comparison, aspiration-driven updates do not require additional information about the strategic environment and can thus be interpreted as being more spontaneous. Recent work has mainly focused on understanding how aspiration dynamics alter the evolutionary outcome in structured populations. However, the baseline case for understanding strategy selection is the well-mixed population case, which is still lacking sufficient understanding. We explore how aspiration-driven strategy-update dynamics under imperfect rationality influence the average abundance of a strategy in multi-player evolutionary games with two strategies. We analytically derive a condition under which a strategy is more abundant than the other in the weak selection limiting case. This approach has a long-standing history in evolutionary games and is mostly applied for its mathematical approachability. Hence, we also explore strong selection numerically, which shows that our weak selection condition is a robust predictor of the average abundance of a strategy. The condition turns out to differ from that of a wide class of imitation dynamics, as long as the game is not dyadic. Therefore, a strategy favoured under imitation dynamics can be disfavoured under aspiration dynamics. This does not require any population structure, and thus highlights the intrinsic difference between imitation and aspiration dynamics.


Author(s):  
Анастасия Владимировна Абрамова

Статья посвящена вопросам евгеники, актуальность которых обусловлена не только научной притягательностью предмета исследования, но и определённым социальным и политическим контекстом. Этическая коммуникация по этому поводу отражает полярные мнения, анализ которых необходим для создания системы моральных требований в рамках сопоставления с классическим пониманием морали. Исследуя проблемы либеральной евгеники, автор статьи ставит перед собой две основные задачи: 1) определить, что включает в себя понятие «моральная система», ограничивая действие моральных запретов (партикуляризм морали) или, наоборот, рассматривая негативные нравственные нормы как всеобщие и универсальные (абсолютизм морали); 2) установить, возможны ли в этой связи евгенические «вмешательства», связанные с «улучшением» человека, или они принципиально недопустимы. В ходе решения первой задачи автор приходит к выводу, что либеральная евгеника не противоречит индивидуально-перфекционистской морали: моё желание реализуемо, если оно никак не ущемляет интересы других людей и не причиняет им вред. Следовательно, классическое понимание морали, претендующее на универсальность и общезначимость, в данном случае изживает себя и в условиях прикладных исследований неприемлемо, так как моральные нормы здесь идеализированы и абстрагированы от конкретной человеческой жизни. Поэтому в рамках исследования второй задачи автор полагает, что моральная переориентация необходима, замечая при этом, что полная легализация может привести к стиранию границ представлений о добре и зле. Кроме того, в случае патерналистского подхода мораль должна основываться на принципе предосторожности, связанном с ответственностью перед будущими поколениями, что заставляет возвращаться к абсолютным моральным запретам. Автор показывает, что неугасающий интерес к евгеническим исследованиям порождён стремлением человека к совершенствованию. Основываясь на анализе моральных дилемм, представленных в конкретных казусах, автор статьи доказывает, что, несмотря на заманчивость евгенических перспектив, они могут иметь непредсказуемые последствия. Исследование позволяет сделать вывод о том, что сила морального абсолютизма в связи с этим остается значимой, даже несмотря на то, что подвергается критике. Тем не менее, моральная допустимость вмешательств в генные структуры человека и его эмбрионов может быть оправдана. Однако с учетом того, что невозможно объять и предвидеть все случаи конкретной человеческой жизни, здесь речь не идёт о выработке критериев, так как со временем это приведет к их безграничному и неконтролируемому увеличению. Чтобы не допустить размывания границ морально дозволенного, выходом из ситуации, который предлагает автор, может стать партикуляризация морали. Это не новая моральная система, а своего рода «негативный пояс эвристики», дающий возможность этически обосновывать каждый уникальный случай в либеральной евгенике. Зафиксирована необходимость семиотической диагностики границ морально дозволенного в каждом уникальном кейсе. Questions of eugenics still remain relevant, which is not only due to the scientific appeal of the subject of the research, but also has a certain social and political subtext. Ethical communication includes a different number of opinions on this issue: their analysis is important for creating a system of moral requirements in comparison with the traditional, classical understanding of morality. In order to talk about the possibility of liberal eugenics, the author of the article sets two main tasks: 1) to determine what the concept “moral system” includes, isolating the boundaries of the action of morality (particularizing) or, conversely, making it universal in its prescriptions (absolutizing); 2) to establish whether eugenic “interventions” associated with genetic variability are possible in this regard, or they are unacceptable. In the course of solving the first problem, the author comes to the conclusion that the logic does not contradict the individual-perfectionist morality: my desire is realizable if it does not infringe on the interests of other people and does not cause them any harm. Consequently, the traditional (classical) understanding of morality, which claims to be universal and universally valid, has outlived itself, and in the context of applied research is unacceptable since moral norms are idealized and abstracted from a specific human life. Therefore, within the framework of the study of the second task, the author believes that moral reorientation is necessary. However, full legalization can lead to the blurring of the boundaries of ideas about good and evil, and, in the case of a paternalistic approach, morality should be based on the precautionary principle associated with responsibility to future generations, which in this case forces us to return to absolute moral restrictions. Human curiosity generates a desire for eugenic research: the author of the article, by analyzing the moral dilemmas presented in specific cases, demonstrates that despite the fact that eugenic prospects seem quite tempting, they are fraught with certain “pitfalls” that can have unpredictable consequences. Therefore, even if moral absolutism does not stand up to criticism, its power remains significant. There is no doubt that the moral permissibility of interventions in the gene structures of potential members of the community should have its own limits of “justification”: if universal criteria are developed, their number will increase over time because it is impossible to grasp and anticipate all the cases of a particular human life, and this will lead to the blurring of the boundaries of the morally permissible. Therefore, the particularism of morality, as a way out of the situation, is not a new moral system, but a kind of a negative belt of heuristics that helps to ethically justify each specific unique case in liberal eugenics. The necessity of semiotic diagnostics of the boundaries of the morally permissible in each unique case has been fixed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manh Hong Duong ◽  
The Anh Han

Abstract In this paper, we study analytically the statistics of the number of equilibria in pairwise social dilemma evolutionary games with mutation where a game’s payoff entries are random variables. Using the replicator–mutator equations, we provide explicit formulas for the probability distributions of the number of equilibria as well as other statistical quantities. This analysis is highly relevant assuming that one might know the nature of a social dilemma game at hand (e.g., cooperation vs coordination vs anti-coordination), but measuring the exact values of its payoff entries is difficult. Our delicate analysis shows clearly the influence of the mutation probability on these probability distributions, providing insights into how varying this important factor impacts the overall behavioural or biological diversity of the underlying evolutionary systems. Graphic abstract


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manh Hong Duong ◽  
The Anh Han

In this paper, we study analytically the statistics of the number of equilibria in pairwise social dilemma evolutionary games with mutation where a game's payoff entries are random variables. Using the replicator-mutator equations, we provide explicit formulas for the probability distributions of the number of equilibria as well as other statistical quantities. This analysis is highly relevant assuming that one might know the nature of a social dilemma game at hand (e.g., cooperation vs coordination vs anti-coordination), but measuring the exact values of its payoff entries is difficult. Our delicate analysis shows clearly the influence of the mutation probability on these probability distributions, providing insights into how varying this important factor impacts the overall behavioural or biological diversity of the underlying evolutionary systems.


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