Definition
Social dilemmas describe situations in which the rational behaviour of an individual—defined in pure and simple economic terms—leads to suboptimal outcomes from the collective standpoint (Dawes, 1980; Kollock, 1998). Researchers frequently use the experimental games method to study social dilemmas in the laboratory. An experimental game is a situation in which participants choose between cooperative and non-cooperative alternatives, yielding consequences for themselves and others. These games are generally depicted with a pay-off matrix representing valuable outcomes for participants like money or lottery tickets. Social dilemmas are in fact a "conflict in which most beneficial action for an individual will, if chosen by most people have a harmful effect on everyone" (Aronson, Wilson, Akert,& Fehr, 2007), or vice versa.
Read more about this topic: Social Dilemma
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