Reputation evaluation and its impact on the human cooperation—A recent survey

Abstract

In this survey, we briefly review some recent advances in the field of indirect reciprocity and reputation mechanism along the routes of theoretical modeling and behavior experiments. Firstly, various game models with reputation evaluation are proposed, and large quantities of numerical simulations demonstrate that introducing the reputation evaluation drastically enhances the level of collective cooperation within the population. In particular, the so-called leading eight rules are found to be evolutionarily stable strategies. Secondly, through extensive human experiments played in the laboratory or via the online labor market, it is validated that providing enough information on the individual strategy or reputation status will help players to select the cooperative partners or perform the rational decision, which eventually facilitates the evolution of cooperation, but some experiments also indicate that allowing the link rewiring may dominate the human cooperation. Finally, several potential and valuable directions are pointed out so as to further explore how the cooperation evolves within the real-world population.