ABSTRACT

Many interesting situations of public good provisions can be modeled as a volunteer’s dilemma (VOD, Diekmann 1985). The most prominent example of a VOD game is helping behavior. Imagine a group of individuals watching an accident or a crime. Assuming the bystanders feel compassion for the victim, they obtain a benefit if the victim receives help. Since volunteering (that is helping the victim) is costly, even if it only means to call the police, every bystander might abstain from providing help, hoping for someone else to interfere. The phenomenon that bystanders of a crime or accident hesitate to help in the presence of others has inspired much research in social psychology. Darley and Latane (1968) labeled the reluctance of individuals in groups to help as “diffusion of responsibility.”