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Abstract:
Is a group best off if everyone co-operates? Theory often considers this to be so (e.g. the ‘‘conspiracy of doves’’), this
understanding underpinning social and economic policy. We observe, however, that after competition between ‘‘cheat’’
and ‘‘co-operator’’ strains of yeast, population fitness is maximized under co-existence. To address whether this might just
be a peculiarity of our experimental system or a result with broader applicability, we assemble, benchmark, dissect, and test
a systems model. This reveals the conditions necessary to recover the unexpected result. These are 3-fold: (a) that resources
are used inefficiently when they are abundant, (b) that the amount of co-operation needed cannot be accurately assessed,
and (c) the population is structured, such that co-operators receive more of the resource than the cheats. Relaxing any of
the assumptions can lead to population fitness being maximized when cheats are absent, which we experimentally
demonstrate. These three conditions will often be relevant, and hence in order to understand the trajectory of social
interactions, understanding the dynamics of the efficiency of resource utilization and accuracy of information will be
necessary.
