Cooperation and Cognition in Social Networks
General Economics
2023-05-03 v1 Economics
Abstract
Social networks can sustain cooperation by amplifying the consequences of a single defection through a cascade of relationship losses. Building on Jackson et al. (2012), we introduce a novel robustness notion to characterize low cognitive complexity (LCC) networks - a subset of equilibrium networks that imposes a minimal cognitive burden to calculate and comprehend the consequences of defection. We test our theory in a laboratory experiment and find that cooperation is higher in equilibrium than in non-equilibrium networks. Within equilibrium networks, LCC networks exhibit higher levels of cooperation than non-LCC networks. Learning is essential for the emergence of equilibrium play.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2305.01209,
title = {Cooperation and Cognition in Social Networks},
author = {Edoardo Gallo and Joseph Lee and Yohanes Eko Riyanto and Erwin Wong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.01209},
year = {2023}
}