{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T03:53:52Z","timestamp":1787889232273,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":63,"publisher":"MIT Press - Journals","issue":"3\u20134","content-domain":{"domain":["direct.mit.edu"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,16]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Indirect reciprocity is an important mechanism for promoting cooperation among self-interested agents. Simplified, it means \u201cyou help me; therefore somebody else will help you\u201d (in contrast to direct reciprocity: \u201cyou help me; therefore I will help you\u201d). Indirect reciprocity can be achieved via reputation and norms. Strategies, such as the so-called leading eight, relying on these principles can maintain high levels of cooperation and remain stable against invasion, even in the presence of errors. However, this is only the case if the reputation of an agent is modeled as a shared public opinion. If agents have private opinions and hence can disagree as to whether somebody is good or bad, even rare errors can cause cooperation to break apart. We show that most strategies can overcome the private assessment problem by applying pleasing. A pleasing agent acts in accordance with others' expectations of their behaviour (i.e., pleasing them) instead of being guided by their own, private assessment. As such, a pleasing agent can achieve a better reputation than previously considered strategies when there is disagreement in the population. Pleasing is effective even if the opinions of only a few other individuals are considered and when it bears additional costs. Finally, through a more exhaustive analysis of the parameter space than previous studies, we show that some of the leading eight still function under private assessment, i.e., that cooperation rates are well above an objective baseline. Yet, pleasing strategies supersede formerly described ones and enhance cooperation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/artl_a_00344","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,20]],"date-time":"2021-09-20T18:18:16Z","timestamp":1632161896000},"page":"246-276","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":22,"title":["Pleasing Enhances Indirect Reciprocity-Based Cooperation Under Private Assessment"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Marcus","family":"Krellner","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Teesside University School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies"},{"name":"Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden m.krellner@tees.ac.uk"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"The Anh","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Teesside University School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies t.han@tees.ac.uk"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"281","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,16]]},"reference":[{"issue":"4","key":"2022032316101780800_bib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"76","DOI":"10.1109\/MTS.2018.2876107","article-title":"Trusting intelligent machines: Deepening trust within socio-technical systems","volume":"37","author":"Andras","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Technology and Society Magazine"},{"issue":"4","key":"2022032316101780800_bib2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"614","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtbi.2009.02.010","article-title":"Mutation-selection equilibrium in games with multiple strategies","volume":"258","author":"Antal","year":"2009","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"issue":"4","key":"2022032316101780800_bib3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"475","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtbi.2004.06.032","article-title":"The logic of reprobation: Assessment and action rules for indirect reciprocation","volume":"231","author":"Brandt","year":"2004","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4615-1159-5","volume-title":"Reputation in artificial societies: Social beliefs for social order","author":"Conte","year":"2002"},{"issue":"12","key":"2022032316101780800_bib5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article 101752","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isci.2020.101752","article-title":"Timing uncertainty in collective risk dilemmas encourages group reciprocation and polarization","volume":"23","author":"Domingos","year":"2020","journal-title":"iScience"},{"issue":"3","key":"2022032316101780800_bib6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"641","DOI":"10.1007\/s13235-019-00338-8","article-title":"On equilibrium properties of the replicator\u2013mutator equation in deterministic & random games","volume":"10","author":"Duong","year":"2020","journal-title":"Dynamic Games and Applications"},{"issue":"4","key":"2022032316101780800_bib7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"980","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.90.4.980","article-title":"Cooperation and punishment in public goods experiments","volume":"90","author":"Fehr","year":"2000","journal-title":"American Economic Review"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"251","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jet.2005.04.006","article-title":"Imitation processes with small mutations","volume":"131","author":"Fudenberg","year":"2006","journal-title":"Journal of Economic Theory"},{"issue":"4","key":"2022032316101780800_bib9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article e35287","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0035287","article-title":"The structure of mutations and the evolution of cooperation","volume":"7","author":"Garc\u00eda","year":"2012","journal-title":"PLOS ONE"},{"issue":"156","key":"2022032316101780800_bib10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article 20190127","DOI":"10.1098\/rsif.2019.0127","article-title":"Evolution of coordinated punishment to enforce cooperation from an unbiased strategy space","volume":"16","author":"Garc\u00eda","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journal of the Royal Society Interface"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/0022-5193(64)90038-4","article-title":"The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I","volume":"7","author":"Hamilton","year":"1964","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-37512-5","volume-title":"Intention recognition, commitment and their roles in the evolution of cooperation: From Artificial intelligence techniques to evolutionary game theory models","author":"Han","year":"2013"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib13","first-page":"2494","article-title":"Emergence of social punishment and cooperation through prior commitments","volume-title":"AAAI'16: Proceedings of the thirtieth AAAI conference on artificial intelligence","author":"Han","year":"2016"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib14","first-page":"1684","article-title":"The role of intention recognition in the evolution of cooperative behavior","volume-title":"IJCAI'11: Proceedings of the twenty-second international joint conference on artificial intelligence","author":"Han","year":"2011"},{"issue":"4","key":"2022032316101780800_bib15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"365","DOI":"10.1162\/ARTL_a_00072","article-title":"Corpus-based intention recognition in cooperation dilemmas","volume":"18","author":"Han","year":"2012","journal-title":"Artificial Life"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2695","DOI":"10.1038\/srep02695","article-title":"Good agreements make good friends","volume":"3","author":"Han","year":"2013","journal-title":"Scientific Reports"},{"issue":"48","key":"2022032316101780800_bib17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"12241","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1810565115","article-title":"Indirect reciprocity with private, noisy, and incomplete information","volume":"115","author":"Hilbe","year":"2018","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America"},{"issue":"10","key":"2022032316101780800_bib18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2551","DOI":"10.1360\/jos182551","article-title":"A reputation-based trust mechanism for P2P e-commerce systems","volume":"18","author":"Jiang","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal of Software"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1007\/s10462-012-9387-2","article-title":"The design of intelligent socio-technical systems","volume":"39","author":"Jones","year":"2013","journal-title":"Artificial Intelligence Review"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib20","first-page":"402","article-title":"Putting oneself in everybody's shoes: Pleasing enables indirect reciprocity under private assessments","volume-title":"Proceedings of the ALIFE 2020: The 2020 conference on artificial life","author":"Krellner","year":"2020"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib21","volume-title":"Artificial life: An overview","author":"Langton","year":"1997"},{"issue":"1468","key":"2022032316101780800_bib22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"745","DOI":"10.1098\/rspb.2000.1573","article-title":"Evolution of cooperation through indirect reciprocity","volume":"268","author":"Leimar","year":"2001","journal-title":"Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.1016\/j.actpsy.2006.09.005","article-title":"The \u2018like me\u2019 framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent","volume":"124","author":"Meltzoff","year":"2007","journal-title":"Acta Psychologica"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib24","volume-title":"Evolution and the capacity for commitment","author":"Nesse","year":"2001"},{"issue":"5805","key":"2022032316101780800_bib25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1560","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1133755","article-title":"Five rules for the evolution of cooperation","volume":"314","author":"Nowak","year":"2006","journal-title":"Science"},{"issue":"6983","key":"2022032316101780800_bib26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"646","DOI":"10.1038\/nature02414","article-title":"Emergence of cooperation and evolutionary stability in finite populations","volume":"428","author":"Nowak","year":"2004","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"6685","key":"2022032316101780800_bib27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"573","DOI":"10.1038\/31225","article-title":"Evolution of indirect reciprocity by image scoring","volume":"393","author":"Nowak","year":"1998","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"561","DOI":"10.1006\/jtbi.1998.0775","article-title":"The dynamics of indirect reciprocity","volume":"194","author":"Nowak","year":"1998","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1291","DOI":"10.1038\/nature04131","article-title":"Evolution of indirect reciprocity","volume":"437","author":"Nowak","year":"2005","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"3","key":"2022032316101780800_bib30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"299","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtbi.2003.11.008","article-title":"Reactive strategies in indirect reciprocity","volume":"227","author":"Ohtsuki","year":"2004","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtbi.2004.06.005","article-title":"How should we define goodness?: Reputation dynamics in indirect reciprocity","volume":"231","author":"Ohtsuki","year":"2004","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"issue":"4","key":"2022032316101780800_bib32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"435","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtbi.2005.08.008","article-title":"The leading eight: Social norms that can maintain cooperation by indirect reciprocity","volume":"239","author":"Ohtsuki","year":"2006","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"issue":"3","key":"2022032316101780800_bib33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.3390\/g11030027","article-title":"A review of theoretical studies on indirect reciprocity","volume":"11","author":"Okada","year":"2020","journal-title":"Games"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article 16799","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-020-73564-5","article-title":"Two ways to overcome the three social dilemmas of indirect reciprocity","volume":"10","author":"Okada","year":"2020","journal-title":"Scientific Reports"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article 9737","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-017-09935-2","article-title":"Tolerant indirect reciprocity can boost social welfare through solidarity with unconditional cooperators in private monitoring","volume":"7","author":"Okada","year":"2017","journal-title":"Scientific Reports"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtbi.2018.06.018","article-title":"A solution for private assessment in indirect reciprocity using solitary observation","volume":"455","author":"Okada","year":"2018","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article 13","DOI":"10.3390\/g11010013","article-title":"Hybrid assessment scheme based on the stern-judging rule for maintaining cooperation under indirect reciprocity","volume":"11","author":"Okada","year":"2020","journal-title":"Games"},{"issue":"12","key":"2022032316101780800_bib39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article e178","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.0020178","article-title":"Stern-judging: A simple, successful norm which promotes cooperation under indirect reciprocity","volume":"2","author":"Pacheco","year":"2006","journal-title":"PLOS Computational Biology"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib40","first-page":"7994","article-title":"Engineering pro-sociality with autonomous agents","volume-title":"Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence","author":"Paiva","year":"2018"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib41","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1016\/S0022-5193(03)00154-1","article-title":"A tale of two defectors: The importance of standing for evolution of indirect reciprocity","volume":"224","author":"Panchanathan","year":"2003","journal-title":"Journal of Theoretical Biology"},{"issue":"80","key":"2022032316101780800_bib42","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20120997","DOI":"10.1098\/rsif.2012.0997","article-title":"Evolutionary dynamics of group interactions on structured populations: A review","volume":"10","author":"Perc","year":"2013","journal-title":"Journal of the Royal Society Interface"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physrep.2017.05.004","article-title":"Statistical physics of human cooperation","volume":"687","author":"Perc","year":"2017","journal-title":"Physics Report"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article e44269","DOI":"10.7554\/eLife.44269","article-title":"Evolution of empathetic moral evaluation","volume":"8","author":"Radzvilavicius","year":"2019","journal-title":"eLife"},{"issue":"8","key":"2022032316101780800_bib45","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"413","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2013.06.003","article-title":"Human cooperation","volume":"17","author":"Rand","year":"2013","journal-title":"Trends in Cognitive Sciences"},{"issue":"7","key":"2022032316101780800_bib46","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2581","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1214167110","article-title":"Evolution of fairness in the one-shot anonymous ultimatum game","volume":"110","author":"Rand","year":"2013","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America"},{"issue":"7695","key":"2022032316101780800_bib47","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"242","DOI":"10.1038\/nature25763","article-title":"Social norm complexity and past reputations in the evolution of cooperation","volume":"555","author":"Santos","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib48","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"41870","DOI":"10.1038\/srep41870","article-title":"The evolution of conditional moral assessment in indirect reciprocity","volume":"7","author":"Sasaki","year":"2017","journal-title":"Scientific Reports"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib49","volume-title":"The calculus of selfishness","author":"Sigmund","year":"2016"},{"issue":"7308","key":"2022032316101780800_bib50","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"861","DOI":"10.1038\/nature09203","article-title":"Social learning promotes institutions for governing the commons","volume":"466","author":"Sigmund","year":"2010","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"19","key":"2022032316101780800_bib51","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"10757","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.161155698","article-title":"Reward and punishment","volume":"98","author":"Sigmund","year":"2001","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America"},{"issue":"2","key":"2022032316101780800_bib52","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"207","DOI":"10.1162\/ARTL_a_00126","article-title":"Institutions and cooperation in an ecology of games","volume":"20","author":"Smaldino","year":"2014","journal-title":"Artificial Life"},{"issue":"3","key":"2022032316101780800_bib53","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"279","DOI":"10.1177\/014920630102700304","article-title":"Reputation and e-commerce: ebay auctions and the asymmetrical impact of positive and negative ratings","volume":"27","author":"Standifird","year":"2001","journal-title":"Journal of Management"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib54","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1435","DOI":"10.1038\/srep01435","article-title":"Indirect reciprocity is sensitive to costs of information transfer","volume":"3","author":"Suzuki","year":"2013","journal-title":"Scientific Reports"},{"issue":"4\u20136","key":"2022032316101780800_bib55","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"97","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physrep.2007.04.004","article-title":"Evolutionary games on graphs","volume":"446","author":"Szab\u00f3","year":"2007","journal-title":"Physics Reports"},{"issue":"5","key":"2022032316101780800_bib56","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"675","DOI":"10.1017\/S0140525X05000129","article-title":"Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition","volume":"28","author":"Tomasello","year":"2005","journal-title":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences"},{"issue":"29","key":"2022032316101780800_bib57","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"10952","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0602530103","article-title":"Evolution of cooperation by multilevel selection","volume":"103","author":"Traulsen","year":"2006","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib58","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"011909","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevE.74.011909","article-title":"Stochastic dynamics of invasion and fixation","volume":"74","author":"Traulsen","year":"2006","journal-title":"Physical Review E"},{"issue":"7","key":"2022032316101780800_bib59","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2962","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0912515107","article-title":"Human strategy updating in evolutionary games","volume":"107","author":"Traulsen","year":"2010","journal-title":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America"},{"issue":"3","key":"2022032316101780800_bib60","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article 036111","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevE.82.036111","article-title":"Effect of private information on indirect reciprocity","volume":"82","author":"Uchida","year":"2010","journal-title":"Physical Review E"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib61","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"187","DOI":"10.1016\/S0079-7421(09)51006-7","article-title":"The emergence of intention attribution in infancy","volume-title":"Psychology of learning and motivation","author":"Woodward","year":"2009"},{"issue":"5","key":"2022032316101780800_bib62","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"803","DOI":"10.1007\/s00285-011-0430-8","article-title":"How small are small mutation rates?","volume":"64","author":"Wu","year":"2012","journal-title":"Journal of Mathematical Biology"},{"key":"2022032316101780800_bib63","first-page":"269","article-title":"Cooperation with bottom-up reputation dynamics","volume-title":"AAMAS '19: Proceedings of the 18th international conference on autonomous agents and multiagent systems","author":"Xu","year":"2019"},{"issue":"1","key":"2022032316101780800_bib64","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"Article 18076","DOI":"10.1038\/srep18076","article-title":"Generosity motivated by acceptance\u2014Evolutionary analysis of an anticipation game","volume":"5","author":"Zisis","year":"2015","journal-title":"Scientific Reports"}],"container-title":["Artificial Life"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/artl\/article-pdf\/27\/3%E2%80%934\/246\/2003330\/artl_a_00344.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"syndication"},{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/artl\/article-pdf\/27\/3%E2%80%934\/246\/2003330\/artl_a_00344.pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,23]],"date-time":"2022-03-23T16:14:26Z","timestamp":1648052066000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/direct.mit.edu\/artl\/article\/27\/3%E2%80%934\/246\/107354\/Pleasing-Enhances-Indirect-Reciprocity-Based"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021]]},"references-count":63,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3\u20134","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,16]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,16]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/artl_a_00344","relation":{},"ISSN":["1064-5462","1530-9185"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1064-5462","type":"print"},{"value":"1530-9185","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published-other":{"date-parts":[[2021]]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2021]]}}}