Communication During Resource Dilemmas: 1. Effects of Different Replenishment Rates

Pavitt, Charles; McFeeters, Courtney; Towey, Erin; Zingerman, Vera

doi:10.1080/03637750500206482

Cited by 15 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…However, the implications of earlier research (reviewed in Shankar & Pavitt, 2002) and the explicit findings of our earlier study (Pavitt et al, 2005) suggest that although more discussion relevant to game strategy does help, discussion relevant to understanding the game is actually negatively related to good game performance. Therefore, as different types of task-relevant communication have the opposite impact on game performance, there was no theoretical rationale to make a prediction concerning the impact of communication on game performance.…”

Section: Game Performancementioning

confidence: 66%

“…Messick et al (1983) reported that participants led to believe that their group was underusing a resource pool increased their harvests in later rounds only when they believed others in the group had done so previously, whereas participants believing their group was overusing the resource pool decreased their harvests only when they felt the others would also; both effects appear to be attempts to equalize harvests across group members. In our earlier study (Pavitt et al, 2005), 20 of the 25 groups obviously meant to harvest in line with the equality norm, although in 3 of those groups, one member defected and intentionally overharvested.…”

Section: Allocation Norms In Resource and Public Goods Dilemmasmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Off-topic tangents. from the previous (Pavitt et al, 2005) study of resource dilemmas, one at the beginning and one at the end, and two groups from the present study, one in the middle and the other at the end, for the purpose of assessing categorizing reliability. For categorizing reliability, we compared the codings of the second, third, and fourth authors with those of the first, both overall and category-by-category, using Guetzkow's P as a liberal index and Scott's pi as a conservative index (see Lombard, Snyder-Duch, & Bracken, 2002).…”

Section: Functional Focus Categoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Group Communication During Resource Dilemmas

Pavitt

Zingerman

Towey

et al. 2006

Communication Research

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A resource dilemma is a circumstance in which an aggregate of people share a slowly replenishing resource pool out of which each person can harvest a significant amount. Resource dilemmas normally make salient an allocation norm of equality in harvests among aggregate members. When asymmetry among aggregate members exists in terms of either access to the resource pool or reward for harvest, the equity allocation norm becomes equally relevant. In this study, groups experienced an experimental simulation of a resource dilemma under either symmetric, asymmetric harvest limit, or asymmetric reward conditions. Groups in the asymmetric conditions were more likely to choose explicitly to follow an allocation norm, and groups that chose to follow a norm had a far more task-oriented discussion and positive perceptions of their experience than groups that did not make an explicit choice. Neither experimental condition nor explicit norm choice revealed a discernible impact on harvesting.

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Section: Game Performancementioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Allocation Norms In Resource and Public Goods Dilemmasmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Functional Focus Categoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Group Communication During Resource Dilemmas

Pavitt

Zingerman

Towey

et al. 2006

Communication Research

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“…It is argued that, by bringing in novel ideas and facilitating information exchange across networks, connectors help local communities find cooperative solutions more effectively. Some studies also support the importance of the role of moralists (Pavitt et al 2005, Janssen 2010, Poteete et al 2010. It is suggested that individuals caught in social dilemmas often voice norms of equity and continuously try to ensure their mutual commitment to such social norms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the underlying causal processes are still debated, it is well known that communication improves outcomes in social dilemmas (Ostrom et al 1992, Sally 1995. Previous studies have concluded that it is the option for and the amount of communication rather than the content of the communication that is necessary to improve outcomes (Pavitt et al 2005, Janssen 2010, but see Pavitt 2011). We analyzed communication by linking the content of the communication among participants to social roles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social roles and performance of social-ecological systems: evidence from behavioral lab experiments

Legáz

Janssen³

et al. 2015

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Social roles are thought to play an important role in determining the capacity for collective action in a community regarding the use of shared resources. Here we report on the results of a study using a behavioral experimental approach regarding the relationship between social roles and the performance of social-ecological systems. The computer-based irrigation experiment that was the basis of this study mimics the decisions faced by farmers in small-scale irrigation systems. In each of 20 rounds, which are analogous to growing seasons, participants face a two-stage commons dilemma. First they must decide how much to invest in the public infrastructure, e.g., canals and water diversion structures. Second, they must decide how much to extract from the water made available by that public infrastructure. Each round begins with a 60-second communication period before the players make their investment and extraction decisions. By analyzing the chat messages exchanged among participants during the communication stage of the experiment, we coded up to three roles per participant using the scheme of seven roles known to be important in the literature: leader, knowledge generator, connector, follower, moralist, enforcer, and observer. Our study supports the importance of certain social roles (e.g., connector) previously highlighted by several case study analyses. However, using qualitative comparative analysis we found that none of the individual roles was sufficient for groups to succeed, i.e., to reach a certain level of group production. Instead, we found that a combination of at least five roles was necessary for success. In addition, in the context of upstream-downstream asymmetry, we observed a pattern in which social roles assumed by participants tended to differ by their positions. Although our work generated some interesting insights, further research is needed to determine how robust our findings are to different action situations, such as biophysical context, social network, and resource uncertainty.

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Structuring Communication Effectively—The Causal Effects of Communication Elements on Cooperation in Social Dilemmas

Koessler

Ortiz-Riomalo

Janke

et al. 2021

Environ Resource Econ

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Many environmental problems represent social dilemma situations where individually rational behaviour leads to collectively suboptimal outcomes. Communication has been found to alleviate the dilemma and stimulate cooperation in these situations. Yet, the knowledge of the basic elements, i.e. the types of information that need to be provided and exchanged to make communication effective, is still incomplete. Previous research relies on ex post methods, i.e. after conducting an experiment researchers analyse what information was shared during the communication phase. By nature, this ex post categorization is endogenous. In this study, we identify the basic elements of effective communication ex ante and evaluate their impact in a more controlled way. Based on the findings of previous studies, we identify four cooperation-enhancing elements of communication: (i) problem awareness, (ii) identification of strategies, (iii) agreement, and (iv) ratification. In a laboratory experiment with 560 participants, we implement interventions representing these components and contrast the resulting levels of cooperation with the outcomes under free (unstructured) or no communication. We find that the intervention facilitating agreement on a common strategy (combination of (ii) and (iii)) is particularly powerful in boosting cooperation. And if this is combined with interventions promoting problem awareness and ratification, similar cooperation levels as in settings with free-form communication can be reached. Our results are relevant not only from an analytical perspective, but also provide insights for social dilemma situations in which effective communication processes cannot be successfully self-organized, calling for some form of external, structured facilitation or moderation.

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Communication During Resource Dilemmas: 1. Effects of Different Replenishment Rates

Cited by 15 publications

References 33 publications

Group Communication During Resource Dilemmas

Group Communication During Resource Dilemmas

Social roles and performance of social-ecological systems: evidence from behavioral lab experiments

Structuring Communication Effectively—The Causal Effects of Communication Elements on Cooperation in Social Dilemmas

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