Coordination and cooperation in local, random and small world networks: Experimental evidence

A laboratory experiment studies coordination and cooperation in games played in different networks local, random and small-world. Coordination on the payoff-dominant equilibrium was faster in small-world networks than in local and random networks. However, in a prisoner’s dilemma game, cooperation was the hardest to achieve in small-world networks. Two graph-theoretic characteristics clustering coefficient and characteristic path length accounted for differences in individual behavior, possibly explaining why equilibrium convergence is most rapid in small-world networks.