Strategically positioning cooperators can facilitate the contagion of cooperation.

ABSTRACT: The spreading of cooperation in structured population is a challenging problem which can be observed at different scales of social and biological organization. Generally, the problem is studied by evaluating the chances that few initial invading cooperators, randomly appearing in a network, can lead to the spreading of cooperation. In this paper we demonstrate that in many scenarios some cooperators are more influential than others and their initial positions can facilitate the spreading of cooperation. We investigate six different ways to add initial cooperators in a network of cheaters, based on different network-based measurements. Our research reveals that strategically positioning the initial cooperators in a population of cheaters allows to decrease the number of initial cooperators

SUBMITTER: Yang G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7806618 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature