Extortion Strategies with Mutation Promote Cooperation on High Clustered Scale-Free Networks

Based on the celebrated Prisoner's Dilemma game, we study the roles of mutation mechanism for the evolution of cooperation with extortion strategies on clustered scale-free networks. It is shown that cooperation can be promoted under the influence of extortion strategies with small mutation rate. This is because that mutation helps the formation of alliance between extortion and cooperation strategies, and extortioners tend to locate on hubs and induce more small-degree neighbors becoming cooperators on high clustered scale-free networks. However, too smaller or too larger mutation rates will inhibit the emergence of cooperation, and the positive influence of mutation on the cooperation disappears on low clustered scale-free networks. This work may provide some clues to explore efficient methods to optimize performance on networked systems.