But the commons was not always used wisely.
One example, called the commons dilemma, was proposed by Garrett Hardin (1968). Hardin noted that in many towns in Europe, there was at one time a centrally located pasture, known as the commons, which was shared by the inhabitants of the village to graze their livestock. Let’s consider first a case in which a social dilemma leads people to overuse an existing public good-a type of social dilemma called a harvesting dilemma. In other cases, the public good involves a service-such as public television or public radio-that is supported by the members of the community but that is used freely by everyone in the community. Examples include the cod off the coast of Newfoundland, water in local reservoirs, public beaches, and clean air. Public goods are benefits that are shared by a community at large and that everyone in the group has access to, regardless of whether or not they have personally contributed to the creation of the goods (Abele, Stasser, & Chartier, 2010). In many cases, the public good involves the responsible use of a resource that if used wisely by the group as a whole will remain intact but if overused will be destroyed. Social dilemmas occur when the members of a group, culture, or society are in potential conflict over the creation and use of shared public goods. Ross and Ward (1995) found that participants played a game more competitively when it was described as a “Wall Street broker game” than when the same game was called a “community game.” And other studies have found that subliminal priming of money or business materials (e.g., boardroom tables and business suits) increases competition (Kay, Wheeler, Bargh, & Ross, 2004 Vohs, Meed, & Goode, 2006). In short, competition is often caused by the social dilemma itself-the dilemma creates patterns whereby even when we want to be good, the situation nevertheless rewards us for being selfish. If human beings are well equipped to cooperate with each other, and if morality, social fairness, and other human features favor cooperation, why are so many social relationships still competitive? If you guessed that the competition comes not so much from the people as it does from the nature of the social situation, then you would be correct. Summarize the individual difference and cultural variables that relate to cooperation and competition.Review the different laboratory games that have been used to study social dilemmas.Describe the principles of the prisoner’s dilemma game that make it an effective model for studying social dilemmas.Explain the concepts of public goods and social dilemmas, and how these conflicts influence human interactions.