Biased perceptions explain collective action deadlocks and suggest new mechanisms to prompt cooperation.

ABSTRACT: When individuals face collective action problems, their expectations about others' willingness to contribute affect their motivation to cooperate. Individuals, however, often misperceive the cooperation levels in a population. In the context of climate action, people underestimate the pro-climate positions of others. Designing incentives to enable cooperation and a sustainable future must thereby consider how social perception biases affect collective action. We propose a theoretical model and investigate the effect of social perception bias in non-linear public goods games. We show that different types of bias play a distinct role in cooperation dynamics. False uniqueness (underestimating own views) and false consensus (overestimating own views) both explain why communities get locked in

SUBMITTER: Santos FP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8080528 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature