Data from: A structured population model suggests that long life and post-reproductive lifespan promote the evolution of cooperation

Social organization correlates with longevity across animal taxa. This correlation has been explained by selection for longevity by social evolution. The reverse causality is also conceivable but has not been sufficiently considered. We constructed a simple, spatially structured population model of asexually reproducing individuals to study the effect of temporal life history structuring on the evolution of cooperation. Individuals employed fixed strategies of cooperation or defection towards all neighbours in a basic Prisoner׳s Dilemma paradigm. Individuals aged and transitioned through different life history stages asynchronously without migration. An individual׳s death triggered a reproductive event by one immediate neighbour. The specific neighbour was chosen probabilistically according to the cumulative payoff from all local interactions. Varying the duration of pre-reproductive, reproductive, and post-reproductive life history stages, long-term simulations allowed a systematic evaluation of the influence of the duration of these specific life history stages. Our results revealed complex interactions among the effects of the three basic life history stages and the benefit to defect. Overall, a long post-reproductive stage promoted the evolution of cooperation, while a prolonged pre-reproductive stage has a negative effect. In general, the total length of life also increased the probability of the evolution of cooperation. Thus, our specific model suggests that the timing of life history transitions and total duration of life history stages may affect the evolution of cooperative behaviour. We conclude that the causation of the empirically observed association of life expectancy and sociality may be more complex than previously realized.跨动物类群，社会组织与寿命之间普遍存在相关性。该关联曾被解释为社会演化对寿命产生选择压力的结果。反之，因果关系倒置的可能性亦存在，但尚未得到充分考量。我们构建了一个简单的空间结构化种群模型，用以研究无性繁殖个体的时间生命史结构对合作演化的影响。个体在经典囚徒困境（Prisoner's Dilemma）范式下，对所有邻近邻居采用固定的合作或背叛策略。个体异步衰老并依次经历不同的生命史阶段，且不存在种群迁移。当个体死亡时，其某一邻近个体将触发繁殖事件；该邻近个体的选择概率，由其与该死亡个体所有局部互动的累计收益所决定。我们通过调整繁殖前期、繁殖期及繁殖后期生命史阶段的时长，并开展长期模拟实验，得以系统评估这些特定生命史阶段时长的影响。研究结果揭示了三类基础生命史阶段的效应与背叛收益之间存在复杂的交互作用。总体而言，较长的繁殖后期可促进合作的演化，而延长的繁殖前期则会产生负面影响。一般而言，总寿命越长，合作演化的概率也越高。因此，本模型表明，生命史转变的时序以及各生命史阶段的总时长，或可对合作行为的演化产生影响。我们由此推断，实证观测到的预期寿命与社会性之间的关联，其因果关系可能比此前所认知的更为复杂。