Higher-order temporal interactions promote the cooperation in the multiplayer snowdrift game

To explore evolutionary dynamics of collective behaviors within the interconnected population, previous studies usually map non-pairwise interactions to higher-order static networks. However, from human communications to chemical reactions and biological systems, interactions often change over time, which cannot be simply described by higher-order static networks. In this study, we introduce time effects into higher-order networks and correspondingly investigate the evolutionary dynamics of multiplayer snowdrift games on higher-order temporal networks. Specifically, extensive simulations from four empirical datasets reveal that (1) the temporal effect of higher-order networks can facilitate the evolution of cooperation; (2) the higher-order topology can enhance the emergence of cooperation within a certain range of parameters; (3) the contribution of temporal burstiness and participants burstiness to cooperation is reversed. Furthermore, we theoretically demonstrate that the higher-order structure will suppress the propagation of defection in temporal networks. Our findings offer a new avenue for studying the evolution of altruistic behaviors in realistic complex networks.