Community structure promotes the emergence of persistence behavior in social networks

Cooperation phenomena are ubiquitous in social systems. In this paper, based on the Prisoner´s dilemma game model, we study the evolution of cooperation in two social networks, namely, the scientific collaboration network (SCN) and the “Pretty-Good-Privacy” (PGP) trust network. Our investigation shows that due to the existence of community structures in real social networks, small-degree individuals tend to follow their local hubs´ behavior and would adopt their strategies in the long run. Hence, the community structure promotes the emergence of persistence behavior. This provides a clue to understanding the evolution of cooperation in social systems.