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Evolution of Cooperation: Spatial Prisoner's Dilemma

Interactive 3D simulation of evolutionary psychology's core question: which behavioral strategy — cooperation, defection, tit-for-tat, grudging, Pavlov or random — wins out when a spatial population repeatedly plays the prisoner's dilemma and copies whichever neighboring strategy scores best.

Cognitive Science3DModerate60 FPS

Evolutionary psychology asks why cooperative instincts like trust, reciprocity and grudge-holding could ever evolve alongside pure self-interest. This simulation places a grid population of agents — each following a different behavioral strategy — into a repeated, spatially structured prisoner's dilemma and lets the best-scoring strategy in each neighbourhood spread generation after generation. Watch which color takes over the grid as you change how tempting betrayal is, how often mutation reshuffles the population, and how fast generations turn over.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 3D simulation of evolutionary psychology's core question: a grid population of agents playing Always Cooperate, Always Defect, Tit-for-Tat, Grudger, Pavlov or Random competes in a repeated spatial prisoner's dilemma, copying whichever neighboring strategy scores best each generation.

Three.jsgame theoryevolutionary psychologyagent-basedcooperationprisoner's dilemma

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install