Persistent imitation paves the way for cooperation in public goods game

In previous studies of evolutionary games, players change reference objects at each time step. However, in real life, many people tend to consistently imitate outstanding role models instead of changing reference objects frequently. From this, a persistent imitation rule is proposed. In detail, a persistent imitator will persist in imitating his or her reference object until the wealth exceeds that of the reference object or the duration of continuous imitation exceeds a specific value. Furthermore, to reflect inter-individual differences, we divide the players into two categories, persistent imitators and random imitators. The simulation suggests that the presence of a high proportion of persistent imitators has a significant effect on the development of cooperation, and the level of cooperation increases as the maximum duration of imitation increases. However, when the proportion of persistent imitators or the maximum duration of imitation is small, the promotion effect on cooperation is not obvious.