Scientists Discover Evolution Punishes the Selfish and Mean

Are you selfish? Then you may not get along with evolution. Scientists have discovered new evidence that evolution didn't favor the selfish, which disproves a theory popularized in 2012 that seemed to indicate the opposite.

The 2012 theory involved a strategy called zero-determinant. This gave selfish players a guaranteed way to beat cooperative players. This would, in turn, eventually eliminate cooperation and create a world full of selfish beings.

"The paper caused quite a stir," said Christoph Adami, MSU professor of microbiology and molecular genetics, in a news release. "The main result appeared to be completely new, despite 30 years of intense research in this area."

In order to see whether or not zero determinant strategy (ZD) would hold true, the scientists used high-powered computing in order to run hundreds of thousands of games, focusing on game theory. In the end, they found that ZD strategies can never be the product of evolution; while they can offer certain advantages while being used against non-ZD opponents, they don't work well against other ZD opponents.

"In an evolutionary setting, with populations of strategies, you need extra information to distinguish each other," said Adami in a news release. In fact, ZD strategies only worked if players knew who their opponents were and adapted their strategies accordingly.

"The only way ZD strategists could survive would be if they could recognize their opponents," said Arend Hintze, one of the researchers, in a news release. "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."

The findings reveal that, in contrast to the 2012 theory, selfishness would not be a good strategy in evolution. In contrast, cooperation would win the day and would help spur species along the path of evolution.

"We found evolution will punish you if you're selfish and mean," said Adami. "For a short time and against a specific set of opponents, some selfish organisms come out ahead. But selfishness isn't evolutionarily sustainable."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.