Cooperation and social organization depend on weighing private and public reputations.

ABSTRACT: To avoid exploitation by defectors, people can use past experiences with others when deciding to cooperate or not ('private information'). Alternatively, people can derive others' reputation from 'public' information provided by individuals within the social network. However, public information may be aligned or misaligned with one's own private experiences and different individuals, such as 'friends' and 'enemies', may have different opinions about the reputation of others. Using evolutionary agent-based simulations, we examine how cooperation and social organization is shaped when agents (1) prioritize private or public information about others' reputation, and (2) integrate others' opinions using a friend-focused or a friend-and-enemy focused heuristic (relying on reputation information

SUBMITTER: Cavaliere M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11252375 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature