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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.02.21.431661

The Good, the Bad and the Stochastic: How Living in Groups Innately Supports Cooperation

Steiner, K. F.
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Abstract

Based on theoretical considerations and computer simulations, I show that living in groups brings advantages for cooperative traits through purely stochastic effects that result from the division of a population into groups. These advantages can be sufficient to compensate individual selection pressures that may be associated with the cooperative traits. In more complex agent-based simulation models, this effect combined with some migration between the groups leads to stable dynamic equilibria between cooperative and defective replicators in the population.

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Steiner, K. F.. 2021-02-23. The Good, the Bad and the Stochastic: How Living in Groups Innately Supports Cooperation. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.21.431661

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