Evolutionary public goods games on scale-free networks with unequal payoff allocation mechanism

In this paper, we bring an unequal payoff allocation mechanism into evolutionary public goods game on scale-free networks and focus on the cooperative behavior of the system. The unequal mechanism can be tuned by one parameter αα: if α>0α>0, the hub nodes can use its degree advantage to collect more payoff; if α<0α<0, numerous non-hub nodes will obtain more payoff in a single round game. Simulation results show that the cooperation level has a non-trivial dependence on αα. For the small enhancement factor rr, the cooperator frequency can be promoted by both negative and positive αα. For large rr, there exists an optimal αα that can obtain the highest cooperation level. Our results may sharpen the understanding of the emergence of cooperation induced by the unequal payoff allocation mechanism.