Individuals in cooperative social systems can cheat the system by reaping the benefits of cooperation without incurring the costs. Here, the presence of a cheater in a population of randomly mutated social amoebae is shown to select for mutations that confer resistance to cheating in the rest of the population. This cheater-resistance can be a noble strategy because the resister strain does not necessarily exploit other strains, preserving cooperative behaviour.
- Anupama Khare
- Lorenzo A. Santorelli
- Gad Shaulsky
