Effects of evolution on the emergence of scale free networks

The evolution of cooperation in social networks, and the emergence of these networks using simple rules of attach-ment, have both been studied extensively although mostly in separation. In real-world scenarios, however, these two fields are typically intertwined, where individuals ’ behavior affect the structural emergence of the network and vice versa. Al-though much progress has been made in understanding each of the aforementioned fields, many joint characteristics are still unrevealed. In this paper we propose the Simultane-ous Emergence and Evolution (SEE) model, aiming at uni-fying the study of these two fields. The SEE model combines the continuous action prisoner’s dilemma (modeling the evo-lution of cooperation) with preferential attachment (used to model network emergence), enabling the simultaneous study of both structural emergence and behavioral evolution of so-cial networks. A set of empirical experiments show that the SEE model is capable of generating realistic complex net-works, while at the same time allowing for the study of the impact of initial conditions on the evolution of cooperation