ArticleBMC biology2026
The key role of cheaters in the persistence of cooperation.
Article in BMC biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ecological determinants of altruism in prokaryote antivirus defense.Biology direct · 2025Article
- Ecological determinants of altruism in prokaryote antivirus defense.Research square · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Update of
- Update of
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEvolution of cooperation is a major, extensively studied problem in evolutionary biology. Cooperation is beneficial for a population as a whole but costly for the bearers of social traits such that cheaters enjoy a selective advantage over cooperators. Here, we focus on coevolution of cooperators and cheaters in a multi-level selection framework, by modeling competition among groups composed of cooperators and cheaters. Cheaters enjoy a reproductive advantage over cooperators at the individual level, independent of the presence of cooperators in the group. Cooperators carry a social trait that provides a fitness advantage to the respective groups.
resultsIn the case of absolute fitness advantage, where the survival probability of a group is independent of the composition of other groups, the survival of cooperators does not correlate with the presence of cheaters. By contrast, in the case of relative fitness advantage, where the survival probability of a group depends on the composition of all groups, the survival of cooperators positively correlates with the presence of cheaters. Increasing the strength of the social trait alone fails to ensure survival of cooperators, and the increase of the reproduction advantage of the cheaters is necessary to avoid population extinction. This unexpected effect comes from multilevel selection whereby cheaters at the individual level become altruists at the group level, enabling overall growth of the population that is essential for the persistence of cooperators. We validate these theoretical results with an agent-based model of a bacterial biofilm where emergence of the cooperative trait is facilitated by the presence of cheaters, leading to evolution of new spatial organization.
conclusionsOur results suggest that, counterintuitively, cheaters often promote, not destabilize, evolution of cooperation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.