EAST LANSING — Nice guys finish last, according to conventional precept. But new research from Michigan State University says otherwise.
"We found evolution will punish you if you’re selfish and mean,” said Christoph Adami, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at MSU, and one of two evolutionary biologists involved in a recent study.
Adami co-authored a scientific paper with MSU molecular and microbiology research associate Arend Hintze focusing on game theory, a study of strategic decision making used in biology, economics, political science and other disciplines. The pair challenged findings in a 2012 research paper that concluded a new strategy called zero-determinant guaranteed selfish players victory over cooperative players.
“The paper caused quite a stir,” Adami said. “The main result appeared to be completely new, despite 30 years of intense research in this area.”
Adami and Hintze used computers to run hundreds of thousands of game-theory simulations, ultimately finding that zero-determinant strategies can never be the product of evolution. Their studies showed that while the zero-determinant strategy is advantageous to those who employ it, the strategy doesn't work well against opponents practicing the same tactics.
“In an evolutionary setting, with populations of strategies, you need extra information to distinguish each other,” Adami said.
In their study, Adami and Hintze found that zero-determinant strategies only succeeded if players knew who their opponents were and adapted their strategies accordingly: A zero-determinant player would play one way against another zero-determinant player but play a different way against a cooperative player.
“The only way ZD strategists could survive would be if they could recognize their opponents,” Hintze said. “And even if ZD strategists kept winning so that only ZD strategists were left, in the long run they would have to evolve away from being ZD and become more cooperative. So they wouldn’t be ZD strategists anymore.”
Translating to laymen's terms, Adami said: “For a short time and against a specific set of opponents, some selfish organisms may come out ahead. But selfishness isn’t evolutionarily sustainable.”
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