Interdependent individual actions produce collective outcomes no one deliberately chose

Evidence

Social behavior, from persuasion and attitude change, to interpersonal relationships, to group interactions, results not only from the intrapsychic psychological processes of isolated individuals but also from interactions among multiple individual agents over time. In fact, in many cases, collective outcomes differ drastically from what any party expects or desires. For example, in studies of bystander intervention, because all participants assume that someone else is helping, the outcome is that no one helps. In the case of the commons dilemma and other social dilemmas, when self-interested individuals overuse a resource (grazing grounds, fisheries) or use a resource without paying for it (public television), the resource may be destroyed to the detriment of all. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 817

Categorization

• XREF: Bystander intervention and commons dilemmas connect to my existing work on sacrifice and decency norms — the gap between individual intent and collective wreckage parallels the ‘death by a thousand small selfish acts’ framing. — connects to: Collective alienation arises when individually rational actions sum to negative outcomes. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 497; Individual serial actions intensify the collective catastrophe they aim to prevent. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 499; Spontaneous social order arises from uncoordinated individual choices without conscious design — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 748 (+5 more)