This study investigates the relationship between conflict avoidance and resource dilemmas. With the increasing need for natural resources, the demand for management and prevention of resource...Show moreThis study investigates the relationship between conflict avoidance and resource dilemmas. With the increasing need for natural resources, the demand for management and prevention of resource depletion grows. Personality has shown to have significant effects on social dilemmas, however, research on individual differences in conflict avoidance remains limited. We conducted an experimental design in which we tested whether conflict avoiders exclude group members less (I) and harvest less from the available resource (II) than non- conflict avoiders. In addition, we tested whether people who score higher on conflict avoidance will harvest less in an exclusion condition in comparison to a non-exclusion condition (III). Our findings suggest no significant relationship between conflict avoidance and behavior in a resource dilemma game. The study’s implications highlight the need for further research to take factors like a more representative sample into account as well as the consideration of conflict avoidance as a situation-dependent variable.Show less
Resource scarcity and diminishing biodiversity are pressing global issues underscored by phenomena such as Earth Overshoot Day. Understanding human behavior in resource dilemma tasks offers...Show moreResource scarcity and diminishing biodiversity are pressing global issues underscored by phenomena such as Earth Overshoot Day. Understanding human behavior in resource dilemma tasks offers insights into mitigating resource overconsumption. This study tried to identify the impact of average group dominance on group performance in resource dilemmas. Drawing on observed behavior like the tragedy of the commons by Van Lange and colleagues (2013) and theories on social heuristics, we hypothesized that higher group dominance scores would correlate with less cooperative behavior and lower proportion of optimal group resource harvest (POGH). We conducted a computerized resource dilemma task with 63 participants, divided into groups of three, after having assessed their individual dominance score using a modified Dominance-Prestige Scale developed by Cheng et al.. Results indicated a very weak, non-significant negative correlation between group dominance scores and the POGH. Limitations in the methodology of the study are believed to have been the main reason the results were not significant. Further research into the social mechanisms behind the tragedy of the commons is recommended.Show less
The social dilemma called the anticommons dilemma represents a context in which a scarce resource has multiple owners who can exclude one another from harvesting from that resource. Not much...Show moreThe social dilemma called the anticommons dilemma represents a context in which a scarce resource has multiple owners who can exclude one another from harvesting from that resource. Not much attention has been paid to factors that lead to non-cooperative decisions in this context. Consequently, the present study investigates how the salience of collective consequences (externalities awareness) influences (non-)cooperative choice behavior in people differing in social value orientations (SVO). After SVO was measured and one of the two externalities awareness conditions was presented, the participants (N = 168) had to indicate a minimum price to give a co-owner access to the resource (WTA) in a modified anticommons paradigm. It was expected that when externalities were made salient individuals would display higher levels of cooperation, by indicating lower WTA’s, compared to when externalities were not made salient. Moreover, it was expected that when externalities were not made salient prosocials would display higher levels of cooperation than proselfs, whereas when externalities were made salient this difference would be smaller. Although the effect of externalities awareness and the interaction effect of this factor with SVO was non-significant, exploratory analyses indicated severe underuse of the common resource. The limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.Show less