Risk sensitivity and assortment in social dilemmas

Abstract

Uncertainty and risk are key features of many social dilemmas, where individual decisions are often made with imperfect knowledge and variance in outcomes. In this paper, we investigate the evolutionary dynamics of the well-known public goods game using a recently introduced modelling framework encapsulating risk-sensitive assortment. Here, the population of mobile agents playing the game is divided into fixed-sized interaction groups. Individuals are defined by a single genetic trait—a risk sensitivity trait—that guides their decision-making. This trait is mapped to a continuous range of investment levels and also provides a mechanism to guide mobility (migration) decisions. Detailed comput..