People conserve shared resources when they expect others to reciprocate restraint.
Evidence
Consistent with our theoretical expectations, we found that individuals who expected reciprocal restraint from other group members were more likely to exercise personal self-restraint themselves. This restraint was especially evident, moreover, under conditions of increasing resource scarcity. Thus, we showed (at least in the context of our laboratory simulation) that individuals are quite willing to do their part to preserve an endangered collective resource so long as they believe others in their group are willing to do so as well. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1952
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Reciprocal-restraint expectation reproduces Ostrom’s core finding in commons governance — connects directly to Elinor Ostrom’s work on collective action without central authority.