EUROPT 2025
Abstract Submission

449. Inducing Cooperation in Social Dilemmas

Invited abstract in session MC-10: Optimization, Learning, and Games II, stream Optimization, Learning, and Games.

Monday, 14:00-16:00
Room: B100/8011

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Stefanos Leonardos
Informatics, King's College London

Abstract

Social dilemmas illustrate situations where individual interests conflict with collective welfare, often leading to outcomes that harm the group whilst being rational for individuals. Despite this tension, real-life observations suggest that cooperation between individuals not only emerges but is key to the development of human societies. We first analyze social dilemmas through the lens of selfishness level, a game-theoretic metric that quantifies incentives for defection and prescribes the payoff modifications needed to induce prosocial behavior. We then address limitations of the canonical social dilemma model by introducing a novel multi-agent reinforcement learning mechanism that equips agents with partner choice, fostering human-aligned decision-making. Our approach promotes sustained cooperation across diverse social dilemmas and enhances learning robustness, even under unfavorable initial conditions.

Keywords

Status: accepted


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