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Vacus R, Korman A. Abundant resources can trigger reduced consumption: Unveiling the paradox of excessive scrounging. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2322955121. [PMID: 38502696 PMCID: PMC10990140 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2322955121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2024] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024] Open
Abstract
In ecological contexts, it is conventionally expected that increased food availability would boost consumption, particularly when animals prioritize maximizing their food intake. This paper challenges this conventional wisdom by conducting an in-depth game-theoretic analysis of a basic foraging model, in which animals must choose between intensive food searching as producers or moderate searching while relying on group members as scroungers. Our study reveals that, under certain circumstances, increasing food availability can amplify the inclination to scrounge to such an extent that it leads to a reduction in animals' food consumption compared to scenarios with limited food availability. We further illustrate a similar phenomenon in a model capturing free-riding dynamics among workers in a company. We demonstrate that, under certain reward mechanisms, enhancing workers' production capacities can inadvertently trigger a surge in free-riding behavior, leading to both diminished group productivity and reduced individual payoffs. Our findings provide intriguing insights into the complex relationships between individual and group performances, as well as the intricate mechanisms underlying the emergence of free-riding behavior in competitive environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin Vacus
- The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Research Institute on the Foundations of Computer Science, 75013Paris, France
| | - Amos Korman
- Department of Computer Science, University of Haifa, Haifa3303221, Israel
- The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), French-Israeli Laboratory on Foundations of Computer Science, Tel-Aviv6329907, Israel
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2
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David-Barrett T. Clustering drives cooperation on reputation networks, all else fixed. R Soc Open Sci 2023; 10:230046. [PMID: 37122944 PMCID: PMC10130726 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.230046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2023] [Accepted: 04/03/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Reputation-based cooperation on social networks offers a causal mechanism between graph properties and social trust. Using a simple model, this paper demonstrates the underlying mechanism in a way that is accessible to scientists not specializing in networks or mathematics. The paper shows that when the size and degree of the network is fixed (i.e. all graphs have the same number of agents, who all have the same number of connections), it is the clustering coefficient that drives differences in how cooperative social networks are.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tamas David-Barrett
- Trinity College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3BH, UK
- Population Studies Institute, Helsinki 00101, Finland
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3
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Galizzi MM, W. Lau K, Miraldo M, Hauck K. Bandwagoning, free-riding and heterogeneity in influenza vaccine decisions: An online experiment. Health Econ 2022; 31:614-646. [PMID: 34989067 PMCID: PMC9305895 DOI: 10.1002/hec.4467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2021] [Revised: 08/17/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
'Nudge'-based social norms messages conveying high population influenza vaccination coverage levels can encourage vaccination due to bandwagoning effects but also discourage vaccination due to free-riding effects on low risk of infection, making their impact on vaccination uptake ambiguous. We develop a theoretical framework to capture heterogeneity around vaccination behaviors, and empirically measure the causal effects of different messages about vaccination coverage rates on four self-reported and behavioral vaccination intention measures. In an online experiment, N = 1365 UK adults are randomly assigned to one of seven treatment groups with different messages about their social environment's coverage rate (varied between 10% and 95%), or a control group with no message. We find that treated groups have significantly greater vaccination intention than the control. Treatment effects increase with the coverage rate up to a 75% level, consistent with a bandwagoning effect. For coverage rates above 75%, the treatment effects, albeit still positive, stop increasing and remain flat (or even decline). Our results suggest that, at higher coverage rates, free-riding behavior may partially crowd out bandwagoning effects of coverage rate messages. We also find significant heterogeneity of these effects depending on the individual perceptions of risks of infection and of the coverage rates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo M. Galizzi
- Department of Psychological and Behavioral ScienceLSE Behavioral Science HubLSE Global Health InitiativeLondon School of EconomicsLondonUK
| | - Krystal W. Lau
- Department of Economics and Public PolicyCentre for Health Economics & Policy InnovationImperial College Business SchoolLondonUK
| | - Marisa Miraldo
- Department of Economics and Public PolicyCentre for Health Economics & Policy InnovationImperial College Business SchoolLondonUK
| | - Katharina Hauck
- MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease AnalysisJameel Institute for Disease and Emergency AnalyticsSchool of Public Health, Imperial College LondonLondonUK
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Nguyen Y, Noussair CN. Incidental Emotions and Cooperation in a Public Goods Game. Front Psychol 2022; 13:800701. [PMID: 35360558 PMCID: PMC8960433 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.800701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/10/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The study reported here considers the relationship between emotional state and cooperation. An experiment is conducted in which the emotions of fear, happiness, and disgust are induced using 360-degree videos, shown in virtual reality. There is also a control condition in which a neutral state is induced. Under the Fear, Happiness, and Disgust conditions, the cooperation level is lower than under the Neutral condition. Furthermore, cooperation declines over time in the three emotion conditions, while it does not under Neutral. The findings suggest that emotions are associated with the dynamic pattern of declining cooperation over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yen Nguyen
- Department of Economics, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
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Verelst F, Kessels R, Willem L, Beutels P. No Such Thing as a Free-Rider? Understanding Drivers of Childhood and Adult Vaccination through a Multicountry Discrete Choice Experiment. Vaccines (Basel) 2021; 9:vaccines9030264. [PMID: 33809589 PMCID: PMC7999942 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines9030264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2021] [Revised: 03/10/2021] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Increased vaccine hesitancy and refusal negatively affects vaccine uptake, leading to the reemergence of vaccine preventable diseases. We aim to quantify the relative importance of factors people consider when making vaccine decisions for themselves, or for their child, with specific attention for underlying motives arising from context, such as required effort (accessibility) and opportunism (free riding on herd immunity). We documented attitudes towards vaccination and performed a discrete choice experiment in 4802 respondents in The United Kingdom, France and Belgium, eliciting preferences for six attributes: (1) vaccine effectiveness, (2) vaccine preventable disease burden, (3) vaccine accessibility in terms of copayment, vaccinator and administrative requirements, (4) frequency of mild vaccine-related side-effects, (5) vaccination coverage in the country’s population and (6) local vaccination coverage in personal networks. We distinguished adults deciding on vaccination for themselves from parents deciding for their youngest child. While all attributes were found to be significant, vaccine effectiveness and accessibility stood out in all (sub)samples, followed by vaccine preventable disease burden. We confirmed that people attach more value to severity of disease compared to its frequency, and discovered that peer influence dominates free-rider motives, especially for the vaccination of children. These behavioral data are insightful for policy and are essential to parameterize dynamic vaccination behavior in simulation models. In contrast to what most game theoretical models assume, social norms dominate free-rider incentives. Policy-makers and healthcare workers should actively communicate on high vaccination coverage, and draw attention to the effectiveness of vaccines while optimizing their practical accessibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frederik Verelst
- Centre for Health Economics Research and Modelling Infectious Diseases (CHERMID), Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute (VAXINFECTIO), University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium; (L.W.); (P.B.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Roselinde Kessels
- Department of Data Analytics and Digitalization, Maastricht University, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands;
- Department of Economics, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Lander Willem
- Centre for Health Economics Research and Modelling Infectious Diseases (CHERMID), Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute (VAXINFECTIO), University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium; (L.W.); (P.B.)
| | - Philippe Beutels
- Centre for Health Economics Research and Modelling Infectious Diseases (CHERMID), Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute (VAXINFECTIO), University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium; (L.W.); (P.B.)
- School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
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Vogelsang M, Jensen K, Kirschner S, Tennie C, Tomasello M. Preschoolers are sensitive to free riding in a public goods game. Front Psychol 2014; 5:729. [PMID: 25076923 PMCID: PMC4098121 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2014] [Accepted: 06/23/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the benefits of cooperation, selfish individuals often produce outcomes where everyone is worse off. This "tragedy of the commons" has been demonstrated experimentally in adults with the public goods game. Contributions to a public good decline over time due to free-riders who keep their endowments. Little is known about how children behave when confronted with this social dilemma. Forty-eight preschoolers were tested using a novel non-verbal procedure and simplified choices more appropriate to their age than standard economic approaches. The rate of cooperation was initially very low and rose in the second round for the girls only. Children were affected by their previous outcome, as they free rode more after experiencing a lower outcome compared to the other group members.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martina Vogelsang
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Institute for Psychology, University of Kassel Kassel, Germany
| | - Keith Jensen
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester Manchester, UK
| | - Sebastian Kirschner
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Psychology Leipzig, Germany
| | - Claudio Tennie
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham Birmingham, UK
| | - Michael Tomasello
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Psychology Leipzig, Germany
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Barrett HC, Cosmides L, Tooby J. Coevolution of cooperation, causal cognition and mindreading. Commun Integr Biol 2010; 3:522-4. [PMID: 21331228 DOI: 10.4161/cib.3.6.12604] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2010] [Accepted: 06/06/2010] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The evolution of cooperation between unrelated individuals has long been a puzzle in evolutionary biology. Formal models show that reciprocal altruism is approximately as stable as kin-based altruism when cooperators can assort. Why, then, is reciprocal altruism so rare? We suggest that the key lies in the difficulty of assortment based on underlying intentions: if individuals are able to reliably detect others' cooperative intent then cooperation is stable, but detecting intentions is notoriously difficult, especially when there are incentives to deceive. For this reason, we suggest, there is likely to be a coevolutionary relationship between human cooperativeness and our skills of social causal cognition; it is not a coincidence that we are both extraordinarily social, cooperating with non-kin to a degree not seen in other species and extraordinarily good at inferring others' beliefs, intentions and motivations, a skill sometimes known as mindreading. We discuss results of a recent study that provides evidence for this coevolutionary view of cooperation and social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- H Clark Barrett
- Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture; Department of Anthropology; University of California; Los Angeles, CA USA
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Abstract
Environmental economics deals with the optimal allocation of production factors and correcting market failure in protecting the environment. Market failure occurs because of externalities, common property resources, and public goods. Environmental policy instruments include direct regulation, taxes/subsidies, tradable permits, deposit systems, voluntary agreements, and persuasion. Environmental policies usually focus on one pollutant or environmental issue but may have substantial impacts on other emissions and environmental problems. Neglecting these impacts will result in suboptimal policies. We present an integrated optimisation model for determining cost-effective strategies to simultaneously reduce emissions of several pollutants from several sources, allowing for interrelations between sources and abatement options. Our integrated approach in regard to acidifying compounds and greenhouse gases will be able to provide cost-effective policy options that will result in lower overall abatement costs. This paper shows that efficient emission reduction can be calculated, but we argue that, for transboundary air pollution and climate change, it is difficult to implement the socially optimal solution because strong incentives exist for "free-riding". In order to implement efficient policies, international environmental agreements like the Gothenburg or the Kyoto Protocol are necessary to establish stable coalitions. The stability of these agreements depends on the distribution of costs and benefits over countries and on the redistribution of the gains of cooperation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ekko van Ierland
- Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Group, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen,
The Netherlands
| | - Corjan Brink
- Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Group, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen,
The Netherlands
- *Corjan Brink:
| | - Leen Hordijk
- Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, Diedenweg 18, 6703 GW Wageningen,
The Netherlands
| | - Carolien Kroeze
- Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, Diedenweg 18, 6703 GW Wageningen,
The Netherlands
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