Game Theory and the Evolution of Cooperation

Evolution is based on the competition between individuals and therefore rewards only selfish behavior. How cooperation or altruism behavior could prevail in social dilemma then becomes a problematic issue. Game theory offers a powerful mathematical approach for studying social behavior. It has been widely used to explain the evolution of cooperation. In this paper, we first introduce related static and dynamic game methods. Then we review two types of mechanisms that can promote cooperation in groups of genetically unrelated individuals, (i) direct reciprocity in repeated games, and (ii) incentive mechanisms such as reward and punishment.