Social Dilemma - Types of Social Dilemmas

Types of Social Dilemmas

The literature on social dilemmas has historically revolved around three metaphorical stories: the Prisoner's Dilemma, the public good Dilemma (see Public Goods Game ), and the Tragedy of the Commons (see Commons dilemma); each of these stories has been modelled as an experimental game.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma Game was developed by mathematicians in the 1950s. The cover story for the game involved two prisoners who are separately given the choice between testifying against the other (non-cooperation) or keeping silent (cooperation). The pay-offs are such that each of them is better off testifying against the other but if they both pursue this strategy they are both worse off than by remaining silent.

The Public Good Game has the same properties as the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game but involving more than two individuals. A public good is a resource from which all may benefit regardless of whether they contributed to the good. For instance, people can enjoy the city parks regardless of whether they contributed to their upkeep through local taxes. Public goods are non-excludable: Once these goods are provided nobody can be excluded from using them. As a result, there is a temptation to enjoy the good without making a contribution. Those who do so are called free-riders, and while it is rational to free-ride, if all do so the public good is not provided and all are worse off. Researchers mostly study two public good dilemma games in the laboratory. Participants get a monetary endowment to play these games and decide how much to invest in a private fund versus group fund. Pay-offs are such that it is individually rational to invest in the private fund, yet all would be better off investing in the group fund because this yields a bonus. In the continuous game the more people invest in the group fund the larger their share of the bonus. In the step-level people get a share of the bonus if the total group investments exceed a critical (step) level.

The Commons Dilemma Game is inspired by the metaphor of the Tragedy of the Commons. This story is about a group of herders having open access to a common parcel of land on which their cows graze. It is in each herder’s interest to put as many cows as possible onto the land, even if the common is damaged as a result. The herder receives all the benefits from the additional cows and the damage to the common is shared by the entire group. Yet if all herders make this individually rational decision, the common's carrying capacity is exceeded and it yields less in total or can even be permanently destroyed, and all will suffer. Compare this with the use of non-renewable resources like water or fish: When water is used at a higher rate than the reservoirs are replenished or fish consumption exceeds its reproductive capacity then we face a tragedy of the commons. The experimental commons game involves a common resource pool (filled with money or points) from which individuals harvest without depleting it. It is individually rational to harvest as much as possible, but the resource collapses if people harvest more than the replenishment rate of the pool.

There are also fairness dilemmas, that involve conflicts arising in how groups making decisions about how their resources and payoffs get spread among the members of the group, and responsibility dilemmas, which involve conflicts arising after completing a group task and trying to determine who deserves credit and/or blame.