Toward a Theory of the Evolution of Fair Play
Authored by Jeffrey C Schank, Sergio M Pellis, Gordon M Burghardt
Date Published: 2018
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01167
Sponsors:
National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
United States National Science Foundation (NSF)
Platforms:
MASON
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Flow charts
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Juvenile animals of many species engage in social play, but its
functional significance is not well understood. This is especially true
for a type of social play called fair play (Fp). Social play often
involves behavioral patterns similar to adult behaviors (e.g., fighting,
mating, and predatory activities), but young animals often engage in Fp
behaviors such as role-reversals and self-handicapping, which raises the
evolutionary problem of why Fp exists. A long-held working hypothesis,
tracing back to the 19th century, is that social play provides contexts
in which adult social skills needed for adulthood can be learned or, at
least, refined. On this hypothesis, Fp may have evolved for adults to
acquire skills for behaving fairly in the sense of equitable
distribution of resources or treatment of others. We investigated the
evolution of Fp using an evolutionary agent-based model of populations
of social agents that learn adult fair behavior (Fb) by engaging in Fp
as juveniles. In our model, adults produce offspring by accumulating
resources over time through foraging. Adults can either behave selfishly
by keeping the resources they forage or they can pool them, subsequently
dividing the pooled resources after each round of foraging. We found
that fairness as equitability was beneficial especially when resources
were large but difficult to obtain and led to the evolution of Fp. We
conclude by discussing the implications of this model, for developing
more rigorous theory on the evolution of social play, and future
directions for theory development by modeling the evolution of play.
Tags
Cooperation
behavior
Fairness
Reciprocity
Evolutionary game theory
Rats
Game
Brain
Ground-squirrels
Social play
Equitability
Social development
Prefrontal cortex