Cooperative scale-free networks despite the presence of defector hubs
J. Poncela, J. Gómez-Gardeñes, L.M. Floría, Y. Moreno, A. SánchezEUROPHYSICS LETTERS 88, 38003 (2009)
Times cited: 27
Abstract
Recent results have shown that heterogeneous populations are better
suited to support
cooperation than homogeneous settings when the Prisoner’s Dilemma drives
the evolutionary
dynamics of the system. The same occurs when the network growth is
coevolving together with
the evolutionary dynamics, which also gives rise to highly cooperative
scale-free networks. In the
latter case, however, the organization of cooperation is radically
different with respect to the case
in which the underlying network is static. In this paper we study the
structure of cooperation
in static networks grown together with evolutionary dynamics and show
that the general belief
that hubs can only be occupied by cooperators does not hold. Moreover,
these scale-free networks
support high levels of cooperation despite having defector hubs. Our
results have several important
implications for the explanation of cooperative behavior in scale-free
networks and highlight the
importance that the formation of complex systems have on its function.