The effects of contemporaneous peer punishment on cooperation with the future

Lohse, Johannes; Waichman, Israel

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15661-7

Cited by 33 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(73 reference statements)

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“…We contribute to the increasing literature on behavioral dynamics in intra-and intergenerational climate change dilemmas [54][55][56]. In line with previous research on intra-generational conflicts of climate change mitigation [10], our results indicate that individuals are willing to contribute in order to avoid the substantial risks associated with climate change.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Nudging Climate Change Mitigation: A Laboratory Experiment with Inter-Generational Public Goods

Böhm

Gürerk

Lauer

2020

Games

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To avoid the dangerous consequences of climate change, humans need to overcome two intertwined conflicts. First, they must deal with an intra-generational conflict that emerges from the allocation of costs of climate change mitigation among different actors of the current generation. Second, they face an inter-generational conflict that stems from the higher costs for long-term mitigation measures, particularly helping future generations, compared to the short-term actions aimed at adapting to the immediate effects of climate change, benefiting mostly the current generation. We devise a novel game to study this multi-level conflict and investigate individuals’ behavior in a lab experiment. We find that, although individuals reach sufficient cooperation levels to avoid adverse consequences for their own generation, they contribute more to cheaper short-term than to costlier long-term measures, to the detriment of future generations. Simple “nudge” interventions, however, may alter this pattern considerably. We find that changing the default contribution level to the inter-generational welfare optimum increases long-term contributions. Moreover, providing individuals with the possibility to commit themselves to inter-generational solidarity leads to an even stronger increase in long-term contributions. Nevertheless, the results also suggest that nudges alone may not be enough to induce inter-generationally optimal contributions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Nudging Climate Change Mitigation: A Laboratory Experiment with Inter-Generational Public Goods

Böhm

Gürerk

Lauer

2020

Games

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“…To build sustainable societies, intergenerational sustainability dilemmas must be resolved; the present generation must act altruistically toward future generations-that is, restrict contemporary gains and instead emphasize the benefit of future generations. In accordance with the rising importance of this issue, the number of studies regarding decisions relating to intergenerational sustainability dilemmas has recently increased (e.g., [2][3][4][5][6] ). This study aims to detect and identify the type of altruistic preference for future generations related to intergenerational dilemmas.…”

Section: People Prefer Joint Outcome Prosocial Resource Distribution mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although some studies that feature economic games indicate that most people do not choose the sustainable option in normal conditions, people have been found to behave altruistically toward subsequent generations when appropriate conditions are applied 11 . Moreover, studies that feature public goods games with intergenerational structures report that the majority of participants left sufficient resources for the next generation 3,6 . These studies demonstrate that people may have altruistic preferences for future generations.…”

Section: People Prefer Joint Outcome Prosocial Resource Distribution mentioning

confidence: 99%

People prefer joint outcome prosocial resource distribution towards future others

Inoue

Himichi

Mifune

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Today, developing and maintaining sustainable societies is becoming a notable social concern, and studies on altruism and prosociality toward future generations are increasing in importance. Although altruistic behaviors toward future generations have previously been observed in some experimental situations, it remains unknown whether prosocial preferences toward future others are based on equality or joint outcome orientations. In the present research, we exploratorily investigated preferences regarding resource distribution by manipulating the time points (i.e., present/future) of the participants and their imaginary partners. The results indicate that prosocial preference toward future others was as strong as that toward present others and seemed to be based on a joint outcome prosocial preference. Notably, when participants and their partners were at different time points, participants preferred to leave resources for the persons in the future. The findings indicate that the type of altruistic preference toward future others may differ from that toward present others, which is mainly equality.

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“…A new experimental paradigm, intergenerational common-pool resource (ICPR) games, has been proposed for studying intergenerational cooperation [ 5 , 30 , 31 ] and may provide insights into how to enhance it. ICPR experiments have previously found that the resource typically deteriorates over generations unless an additional mechanism is added, such as voting or punishment [ 30 , 31 ]. However, these experiments have simulated generations as sequential groups of strangers and assumed the future outcomes do not influence the current generation (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Having a stake in the future and perceived population density influence intergenerational cooperation

et al. 2021

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Intergenerational common-pool resource games represent a new experimental paradigm in which the current generation's decision to cooperate or defect influences future generations who cannot reciprocate, providing key insights for sustainability science. We combine experimental and theoretical approaches to assess the roles of having a stake in the future (50% chance to pass the resource on to themselves in the next generation) and reminders of the presence of others (exposure to people-chatting sounds) on intergenerational cooperation. We find that, as expected, having a stake in the future increases cooperation with future generations, except when participants are also exposed to people-chatting sounds. We hypothesize that this interaction effect occurs because people-chatting sounds trigger a perception of large group size, which reduces the chance of individuals and their descendants benefiting from the pool in the future, thus reducing cooperation. Our results highlight the context-dependent effect of having a future stake on intergenerational cooperation for resource sustainability, and suggest an area of future work for environmental messaging.

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The effects of contemporaneous peer punishment on cooperation with the future

Cited by 33 publications

References 49 publications

Nudging Climate Change Mitigation: A Laboratory Experiment with Inter-Generational Public Goods

Nudging Climate Change Mitigation: A Laboratory Experiment with Inter-Generational Public Goods

People prefer joint outcome prosocial resource distribution towards future others

Having a stake in the future and perceived population density influence intergenerational cooperation

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