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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation

Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 30k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the evolution of cooperation, altruism, and social behavior in various systems, including human societies, microbial communities, and religious groups. It investigates the role of evolutionary games, social networks, indirect reciprocity, and cultural evolution in shaping cooperative behaviors and examines the dynamics of public goods games and the emergence of altruistic punishment. Additionally, it delves into the interplay between genetic and cultural factors in promoting prosocial behaviors.

  • Cooperation
  • Altruism
  • Evolutionary Games
  • Social Networks
  • Indirect Reciprocity
  • Group Selection
  • Cultural Evolution
  • Microbial Communities
  • Religious Behavior
  • Public Goods Games
Research works
30k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-6%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
31% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation

Which countries lead Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.1k and 904 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.1k works
  2. 2 China 904 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 372 works
  4. 4 Germany 279 works
  5. 5 France 190 works
  6. 6 India 186 works
  7. 7 Japan 178 works
  8. 8 Canada 141 works
  9. 9 Italy 122 works
  10. 10 Spain 119 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 31.1%China: 25.0%United Kingdom: 10.3%Germany: 7.7%6 others listed: 25.9%31%largest
United States1,124 · 31.1%China904 · 25.0%United Kingdom372 · 10.3%Germany279 · 7.7%6 others listed936 · 25.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation research, followed by Max Planck Society and University of Oxford.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 76 works
  2. 2 Max Planck SocietyGermany 57 works
  3. 3 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 39 works
  4. 4 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 24 works
  5. 5 Arizona State UniversityUnited States 24 works
  6. 6 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 22 works
  7. 7 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 22 works
  8. 8 Harvard UniversityUnited States 21 works
  9. 9 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 21 works
  10. 10 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSpain 18 works

Who are the leading researchers in Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation include Rob Knight, Albert Bandura and Karl John Friston.

  1. 1 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  2. 2 Albert Bandura United States 370k citations
  3. 3 Karl John Friston United Kingdom 310k citations
  4. 4 Nicholas G. Martin Australia 228k citations
  5. 5 Albert-Ĺaszló Barabási United States 223k citations
  6. 6 Eugene V. Koonin United States 217k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation?

The most cited paper in Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation is "Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks" (Albert-Ĺaszló Barabási, Réka Albert, 1999), with 36,811 citations. Next come "The Tragedy of the Commons" (23,379) and "The Evolution of Cooperation" (20,368).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks Albert-Ĺaszló Barabási, Réka Albert · Science Open access 15 Oct 1999 36,811
2 The Tragedy of the Commons Garrett Hardin · Science 13 Dec 1968 23,379
3 The Evolution of Cooperation Robert Axelrod, William D. O. Hamilton · Science 27 Mar 1981 20,368
4 The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I William D. O. Hamilton · Journal of Theoretical Biology Jul 1964 15,968
5 Parental Investment and Sexual Selection Robert L. Trivers Book chapter 12 Jul 2017 9,562
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation research done?

The largest centres of Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Paris (France), London (United Kingdom) and Shanghai (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Leipzig.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 144 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 86 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 77 works
  4. 4 ShanghaiChina 68 works
  5. 5 TokyoJapan 64 works
  6. 6 Xi'anChina 57 works
  7. 7 OxfordUnited Kingdom 44 works
  8. 8 New YorkUnited States 44 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 41 works
  10. 10 HangzhouChina 41 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LeipzigDE · 24.1 works8.2×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation than the world average.

See Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation on the map

Where is the best place to study Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Oxford, Princeton University and Harvard University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 17.96%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Tiangong UniversityHarvard UniversityPrinceton UniversityUniversity of Oxford
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 71.811.9%6.7×39 -7.9%
2Princeton UniversityUnited States 62.020.3%8.3×15 +14.1%
3Harvard UniversityUnited States 61.923.6%1.6×21 -24.8%
4Tiangong UniversityChina 61.630.7%10.2×10 +707.2%
5Yunnan UniversityChina 58.923.8%8.0×13 +78.8%
6University of St AndrewsUnited Kingdom 58.414.7%18.3×16 -3.3%
7Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 56.113.3%5.1×24 +43.9%
8University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 55.010.1%4.4×22 +3.7%
9University of ExeterUnited Kingdom 54.313.5%9.9×18 -30.7%
10University of California, DavisUnited States 54.117.7%5.0×17 +10.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation, country by country

Is Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 6% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.018% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation0.018% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation10.3% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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