Eur. Phys. J. B (2016) 89: 93
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2016-70043-5

Regular Article

Effect of network topology on the evolutionary ultimatum game based on the net-profit decision

¹ Institute of Systems Engineering, College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, P.R. China
² School of Mechanical Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan Anhui 243002, P.R. China
³ Columbia, Missouri, 65203, USA

^a e-mail: xienenggang@aliyun.com

Received: 23 November 2015
Received in final form: 19 January 2016
Published online: 11 April 2016

Abstract

The ubiquity of altruist behavior amongst humans has long been a significant puzzle in the social sciences. Ultimatum game has proved to be a useful tool for explaining altruistic behavior among selfish individuals. In an ultimatum game where alternating roles exist, we suppose that players make their decisions based on the net profit of their own. In this paper, we specify a player’s strategy with two parameters: offer level α ∈ [ 0,1) and net profit acceptance level β ∈ [ − 1,1). By Monte Carlo simulation, we analyze separately the effect of the size of the neighborhood, the small-world property and the heterogeneity of the degree distributions of the networks. Results show that compared with results observed for homogeneous networks, heterogeneous networks lead to more rational outcomes. Moreover, network structure has no effect on the evolution of kindness level, so moderate kindness is adaptable to any social groups and organizations.