Evolution of cooperation among migrating resource-oriented agents under environmental variability

Cooperation is fundamental to human societies. While several basic theoretical mechanisms underlying its evolution have been established, research addressing more realistic settings remains underdeveloped. Drawing on the hypothesis that intensified environmental fluctuations influenced early behavioral evolution in humans during the Middle Stone Age in Africa, we examine the effects of environmental variability and human mobility on the evolution of cooperation. In our model, the variability is represented by randomly moving resource-rich spots across a two-dimensional space, and the mobility is represented by resource-seeking migration of agents. The agents interact cooperatively or competitively for resources while adopting their behavioral strategies from more successful neighbors. Through extensive simulations of this model, we reveal three key findings: (i) with sufficient agent mobility, even modest environmental variability promotes cooperation, but further variability does not enhance cooperation; (ii) with any level of environmental variability, agent mobility promotes cooperation; and (iii) these effects occur because the joint effect of environmental variability and agent mobility disrupts defector groups in resource-rich areas, forming cooperator groups at those sites. Although previous studies examined environmental variability and mobility separately, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze their joint effects on the evolution of cooperation. These findings suggest that environmental variability can promote cooperative group formation without enhanced cognitive abilities, providing new insights into the evolution of human cooperation and, by extension, sociality. • Modeling environmental variability as a driver of Middle Stone Age human cooperation. • Environmental variability and agent mobility can promote the evolution of cooperation. • Environmental variability can disrupt stable defector groups in resource-rich areas. • Agent interactions and mobility can foster cooperative group formation. • Cooperation can evolve without requiring enhanced cognitive abilities.