ABSTRACT
When individuals have access to a scarce common resource such as fisheries, parks, and water supplies, the nature of their interdependence can be characterized as a social dilemma. The dilemma arises because actions dictated by individual rationality (overfish, use as much water as you like) threaten the common resource in the short or long run. Since the individual’s own self-interest derives from the existence of the common resource, a seemingly rational choice by all may produce just the opposite. Thus, while a person may prefer to take long showers in drought conditions, the aggregate effect of everyone choosing this alternative may be severe water shortage. The drastic decline of the cod fishing industry in the Atlantic in recent years (Kurlansky, 1997) illustrates the major economic and social consequences associated with social dilemmas in which participants were unable or unwilling to find a collective solution to overuse. There is a growing realization that much of human interdependence can be understood in terms of social dilemmas, making it important that we understand their nature and ways which humans have devised to resolve them.
