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Human cooperation: second-order free-riding problem solved?

James H Fowler
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Abstract

Panchanathan and Boyd describe a model of indirect reciprocity in which mutual aid among cooperators can promote large-scale human cooperation without succumbing to a second-order free-riding problem (whereby individuals receive but do not give aid). However, the model does not include second-order free riders as one of the possible behavioural types. Here I present a simplified version of their model to demonstrate how cooperation unravels if second-round defectors enter the population, and this shows that the free-riding problem remains unsolved.

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James H Fowler. 2005-09-22. Human cooperation: second-order free-riding problem solved?. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04201

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