The production and maintenance of shared environmental resources such as access to nutrients in microbial communities or potable water in human societies require the cooperation of groups of individuals. However, cooperation is costly and prone to exploitation. If too many individuals follow selfish interests and spoil their environment, the group and possibly the entire population suffers. Nevertheless, many forms of biological lifefrom humans to microbesmigrate in response to resource availability. Here, we analyze the interplay of the social conflict in public goods production and targeted migration. In particular, we find that aggregation of cooperators can enhance or trigger the spontaneous formation of heterogeneous spatial distributions, which promote cooperation and result in higher population densities. Conversely, attempts to avoid defectors increases the risk of extinction because it tends to homogenize population distributions and lower population densities.
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