"Thus cooperation can emerge even in a world of unconditional defection. The development cannot take place if it is tried only by scattered individuals who have no chance to interact with each other. But cooperation can emerge from small clusters of discriminating individuals, as long as these individuals have even a small proportion of their interactions with each other. Moreover, if nice strategies (those which are never the first to defect) come to be adopted by virtually everyone, then those individuals can afford to be generous in dealing with any others. By doing so well with each other, a population of nice rules can protect themselves against clusters of individuals using any other strategy just as well as they can protect themselves against single individuals. But for a nice strategy to be stable in the collective sense, it must be provocable. So mutual cooperation can emerge in a world of egoists without central control by starting with a cluster of individuals who rely on reciprocity."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPolitical scientists from the United StatesPeople from ChicagoYale University alumniNational Medal of Science laureates
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Chap. 3 : The Chronology of Cooperation
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Axelrod
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Robert Axelrod
44 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Axelrod →
Related Quotes
"What makes it possible for cooperation to emerge is the fact that the players might meet again. This possibility mean…"
"In fact, in the Prisoner's Dilemma, the strategy that works best depends directly on what strategy the other player i…"
"Proposition 1. If the discount parameter, w, is sufficiently high, there is no best strategy independent of the strat…"
"In addition, TIT FOR TAT was known to be a powerful competitor. In a preliminary tournament, TIT FOR TAT scored secon…"
"What accounts for TIT FOR TAT's robust success is its combination of being nice, retaliatory, forgiving, and clear. I…"
"Proposition 2. TIT FOR TAT is collectively stable if and only if, w is large enough. This critical value of w is a fu…"
"Proposition 3. Any strategy which may be the first to cooperate can be collectively stable only when w is sufficientl…"
"Proposition 4. For a nice strategy to be collectively stable, it must be provoked by the very first defection of the …"
"Proposition 5. ALL D is always collectively stable."
"The Cooperation Theory that is presented in this book is based upon an investigation of individuals who pursue their …"