Heterogeneous fitness promotes cooperation in the spatial prisoner's dilemma game

Many literatures suggest that incorporating the environment of a focal player (denoted by the average payoff of its all immediate neighbors) into its fitness can promote cooperation in spatial evolutionary games. However, the immediate neighbors influence the focal one to varying degree. Inspired by these, we quantify the focal player's environment with a weighted average payoff of its all immediate neighbors via two interdependent parameters. Numerous simulations show that two moderate parameter pairs favor cooperation, in addition, when the contribution of all immediate neighbors' payoffs to the environment is negative, the cooperation is promoted remarkably. The generality of this mechanism is verified on different networks and more games. Our work might shed light on the understanding of the evolution of cooperative behaviors in real life. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.