A new study uses neural networks to prove that memory and individual recognition allow cooperation to defeat selfishness in the prisoner's dilemma.

Cooperation in nature can yield immediate mutual benefits or depend on delayed reciprocity. The latter is vulnerable to “free-riding,” where a beneficiary fails to return help, and classical theories ...

The "prisoner's dilemma" is one of the most famous ideas in game theory. For decades, this game has been used to explain why selfishness often beats cooperation. In the prisoner's dilemma, two players ...