Cooperation by Evolutionary Feedback Selection in Public Good Experiments

Abstract

We suggest that the propensity for altruistic punishment and reward is an emergent property that has co-evolved with cooperation and has provided efficient feedback measured in social dilemma and public good experiments. A simple cost/benefit analysis at the level of single agents, who anticipate the action of her fellows and determine an optimal level of altruistic punishment, explains quantitatively experimental results on the third-party punishment game, the ultimatum game and altruistic punishment games. Numerical simulations of an evolutionary agent-based model of repeated agent interactions with feedback-by-punishments confirms that the propensity to punish is a robust emergent property.

Keywords: altruistic punishment, strong cooperativity, cooperation, public good games, social dilemma

JEL Classification: C71, H41, D63