Zimmermann, Martín G.; Eguíluz, Víctor M.; San Miguel, Maxi; Spadaro, Amedeo
Application of Simulations to Social Sciences. Eds. G. Ballot and G. Weisbuch, Hermes Science Publications, 283-297 (2000)
We study the dynamics of a set of agents distributed in the nodes of an adaptive network. Each agent plays with all its neighbors a weak prisoner´s dilemma collecting a total pay-off. We study the case where the network adapts locally depending on the total pay-off of the agents. In the parameter regime considered, a steady state is always reached (strategies and network remain stationary), where cooperation is highly enhanced. However, when the adaptability of the network and the incentive for defection are high enough, we show that a slight perturbation of the steady state induces large oscillations (with cascades) in behavior between the nearly all-defectors sate and the all-cooperators outcome.