Possible effects of lost, wrong and delayed information on the evolution of cooperation

Abstract

This paper investigates possible effects of different information deficiencies on the evolution of cooperation on the basis of the Iterative Prisoner’s Dilemma. To this end, an evolving pool of players repeatedly participates in Round-Robin tournaments. The effect of 5% lost, 5% wrong and 5% delayed information on the amount of games in which both players cooperate per generation, the average payoff received by players per generation and the total age of the player pool is examined. The method used to research the different information deficiencies is discussed extensively and suggestions for further research are given. The conducted research makes it apparent how information deficiencies can decrease the amount of games in which both players cooperate, the average payoff and how it can increase the total age of all players in the pool per generation. At the same time, it is observed how cooperative behavior is still present in all of the performed experiments.