Playing nice in the sandbox: On the role of heterogeneity, trust and cooperation in common-pool resources

Abstract

The increasing heterogeneity of populations affects cooperation in common-pool resources in a time where the depletion of natural resources is a growing problem. This study investigates the effects of economic and sociocultural heterogeneity on trust and cooperation in common-pool resources using a laboratory experiment. The experiment comprises two Investment Games and a Common-Pool Resource Game, with a sample of 344 subjects from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. By measuring the effects of economic and sociocultural heterogeneity separately as well as combined, this study disentangles the effects of specific heterogeneity types on cooperation in common-pool resources; something that has not been done before. Higher levels of trusting behaviour are found to have a positive effect on cooperation on the micro-and macro-level over time. While theory suggests negative effects of both forms of heterogeneity on cooperation through decreased levels of trust, the results show a surprising positive effect of economic heterogeneity on cooperation, but a negative effect if economic and sociocultural heterogeneity are combined. This study concludes that economic inequality can promote cooperation in CPRs, unless this inequality is lined up with sociocultural differences.

Unity in Diversity? How Intergroup Contact Can Foster Nation Building

“…However, rising geographic mobility has stoked concerns that growing local diversity may undermine this nation-building objective. 2 This paper asks how intergroup contact affects the intergenerational process of nation building. Competing views abound in the social sciences.…”

“…History abounds with efforts "to make" national citizens (see, e.g., Duggan 2007, on Italy). 2 Putnam (2007); Alesina, Tabellini, and Trebbi (2017); and Miller (2012) discuss challenges of forging a shared identity within the European Union. More generally, migration pressures are growing among minorities within rich countries (see Frey 2014, on the United States) and in newer migration corridors from poor to rich countries (Hanson and McIntosh 2016).…”

Definition of Trust as a Catalyst and the Implications Therefrom: A Deduction from a Literature Review

“…Trust can be regarded as an entity or form or a mechanism (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002;Jarvenpaa et al, 2000;Li, 2007). Other researchers have noted that trust acts as a catalyst in interactions (Badeo, 2017;Ferres, Connell, & Travaglione, 2004;van Klingeren, 2020).…”

Unity in Diversity? How Intergroup Contact Can Foster Nation Building

“…The program fostered ethnic diversity in the new villages in two ways. First, given the rushed implementation to meet lofty resettlement targets, 11 the assignment of transmigrants was neither rigorous nor systematic. Instead, the allocation across villages was determined by the coincidental timing of transmigrants' arrival to transit camps in Java/Bali and the opening of settlements in the Outer Islands.…”

“…In the 2000 Population Census, transmigrants had around 0.7 fewer years of schooling than non-migrants from their origin district in Java/Bali and 3.5 fewer years of schooling than those who migrated independently to other Outer Island districts 11. A total of 1.2 million people were resettled from 1979-1983, and an additional 3.75 million people were planned to be resettled from 1984-1988.…”