What does "Direct Reciprocity" mean?
Table of Contents
Direct reciprocity is a way that people often cooperate with each other based on past actions. When two individuals interact multiple times, they can remember what each person did before. This memory helps them decide how to act in future interactions.
How It Works
A common approach called "Tit-for-Tat" suggests that a person should cooperate if the other person cooperated last time. If the other person didn't cooperate, then it’s fine to also act in a non-cooperative way. This principle encourages mutual cooperation over time.
Memory Matters
As interactions continue, players can use longer memories to guide their actions. Some strategies consider the last few moves of their partner, allowing them to react in a more informed way. For example, a strategy that looks at the last three moves can adjust its response based on how often the partner cooperated.
Partner Strategies
Certain strategies work well together to ensure that both players can cooperate without taking advantage of each other. These "partner strategies" are crucial for building trust and maintaining cooperation in repeated games.
Findings
Research shows that using longer memory can increase the overall cooperation rate among players. However, simply counting how often the partner cooperated in previous rounds is not enough. To get the full benefits of memory, players need to pay attention to the order of actions taken.