Evolutionary public goods games on scale-free networks with unequal payoff allocation mechanism

In this paper, we bring an unequal payoff allocation mechanism into evolutionary public goods game on scale-free networks and focus on the cooperative behavior of the system. The unequal mechanism can be tuned by one parameter alpha: if alpha > 0, the hub nodes can use its degree advantage to collect more payoff: if alpha < 0, numerous non-hub nodes will obtain more payoff in a single round game. Simulation results show that the cooperation level has a non-trivial dependence on alpha. For the small enhancement factor r, the cooperator frequency can be promoted by both negative and positive alpha. For large r, there exists an optimal alpha that can obtain the highest cooperation level. Our results may sharpen the understanding of the emergence of cooperation induced by the unequal payoff allocation mechanism. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.