Spatial prisoner's dilemma games with increasing neighborhood size and individual diversity on two interdependent lattices

• A novel PDG model with individual diversity and utility interdependency is proposed.
• Diversity can be represented by players with different strategy spreading abilities.
• Interdependency is implemented by the payoff correlation between two lattices.
• Cooperation can be remarkably promoted by combining these two kinds of mechanisms.

We present an improved spatial prisoner's dilemma game model which simultaneously considers the individual diversity and increasing neighborhood size on two interdependent lattices. By dividing the players into influential and non-influential ones, we can discuss the impact of individual diversity on the cooperative behaviors. Meanwhile, we implement the utility interdependency by integrating the payoff correlations between two lattices. Extensive simulations indicate that the optimal density of influential players exists for the cooperation to be promoted, and can be further facilitated through the utility coupling. Current results are beneficial to understanding the origin of cooperation among selfish agents among realistic scenarios.