Evolution in group-structured populations can resolve the tragedy of the commons.

@article{citeulike:1217948, abstract = {Public goods are the key features of all human societies and are also important in many animal societies. Collaborative hunting and collective defence are but two examples of public goods that have played a crucial role in the development of human societies and still play an important role in many animal societies. Public goods allow societies composed largely of cooperators to outperform societies composed mainly of non-cooperators. However, public goods also provide an incentive for individuals to be selfish by benefiting from the public good without contributing to it. This is the essential paradox of cooperation-known variously as the Tragedy of the Commons, Multi-person Prisoner's Dilemma or Social Dilemma. Here, we show that a new model for evolution in group-structured populations provides a simple and effective mechanism for the emergence and maintenance of cooperation in such a social dilemma. This model does not depend on kin selection, direct or indirect reciprocity, punishment, optional participation or trait-group selection. Since this mechanism depends only on population dynamics and requires no cognitive abilities on the part of the agents concerned, it potentially applies to organisms at all levels of complexity.}, address = {College of William and Mary, Department of Mathematics, Williamsburg, VA 23187, USA. tpkill@wm.edu}, author = {Killingback, T. and Bieri, J. and Flatt, T. }, citeulike-article-id = {1217948}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3476}, issn = {0962-8452}, journal = {Proc Biol Sci}, keywords = {evolutionary\_dynamics}, month = {June}, number = {1593}, pages = {1477--1481}, posted-at = {2007-11-23 19:21:55}, priority = {2}, title = {Evolution in group-structured populations can resolve the tragedy of the commons.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3476}, volume = {273}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1217948 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1217948 TI - Evolution in group-structured populations can resolve the tragedy of the commons. JF - Proc Biol Sci VL - 273 IS - 1593 SP - 1477 EP - 1481 AD - College of William and Mary, Department of Mathematics, Williamsburg, VA 23187, USA. tpkill@wm.edu SN - 0962-8452 N2 - Public goods are the key features of all human societies and are also important in many animal societies. Collaborative hunting and collective defence are but two examples of public goods that have played a crucial role in the development of human societies and still play an important role in many animal societies. Public goods allow societies composed largely of cooperators to outperform societies composed mainly of non-cooperators. However, public goods also provide an incentive for individuals to be selfish by benefiting from the public good without contributing to it. This is the essential paradox of cooperation-known variously as the Tragedy of the Commons, Multi-person Prisoner's Dilemma or Social Dilemma. Here, we show that a new model for evolution in group-structured populations provides a simple and effective mechanism for the emergence and maintenance of cooperation in such a social dilemma. This model does not depend on kin selection, direct or indirect reciprocity, punishment, optional participation or trait-group selection. Since this mechanism depends only on population dynamics and requires no cognitive abilities on the part of the agents concerned, it potentially applies to organisms at all levels of complexity. KW - evolutionary_dynamics AU - Killingback, T AU - Bieri, J AU - Flatt, T PY - 2006/06/22/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3476 ER -