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Conservation of the commons: Effects of group cohesiveness and prior sharing
Author(s) -
Baird John S.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198207)10:3<210::aid-jcop2290100303>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - group cohesiveness , commons , social dilemma , dilemma , resource (disambiguation) , social psychology , common pool resource , psychology , shared resource , resource use , group (periodic table) , political science , economics , microeconomics , environmental resource management , computer science , epistemology , law , computer network , philosophy , chemistry , organic chemistry
The social issue of conservation is conceptualized in terms of a commons dilemma. Both the recent experimental and theoretical literature are briefly reviewed. The author hypothesized that increasing group cohesiveness and exposing subjects to prior sharing would increase cooperative responding in a simulated commons problem. Undergraduate students ( n = 60) in groups of three drew quarters from a regenerating resource pool. Groups which had previously shared a monetary reward were able to preserve the resource more effectively and earned more money than groups which had not shared a previous reward. The traditional cohesiveness manipulation was not successful. The results suggest that prior exposure to cooperative alternatives may enhance the cooperative response in later problem situations. The practical and theoretical implications for conservation strategies are mentioned.