Extended Data Fig. 8: Summary of main examples.

A good is wealth-producing (w) if the total payoff (sum of all benefits minus sum of all costs) is positive when everyone in the population is a producer. It is harmful (h) if at least one individual has a negative payoff in the all-producer state. For three kinds of social goods (pp, ff, and pf) and update rules (PC, DB, and IM), this table summarizes when a good can be wealth-producing and/or harmful, as well as when such a good can evolve. Notably, these results are not influenced much by the choice of update rule.