Cooperation is vital to a well-functioning society. Cooperation is needed to solve difficult societal problems, sustain shared social systems and resources (common-pool resources), and provide essential goods and services (public goods). Society's governance systems promote cooperation by protecting shared interests, encouraging people to follow rules, and reducing conflicts. Widespread and sustained cooperation, however, is not guaranteed. Recent world events show many examples of cooperative failures (e.g., global conflict, political upheaval, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity). The psychological mechanisms involved in cooperative decision making must be better understood to develop more effective solutions to these problems. The current research project examines the psychological processes associated with three important aspects of governance: communication, democratic decision making (e.g., voting), and enforcement (e.g., monitoring and financial punishments). The goal is to understand (a) when and why these governance mechanisms improve cooperation, or hinder it, and (b) what motivates groups of people to self-govern, creating their own effective solutions for shared problems. The research project looks at five core aspects of social cognition that influence people's group commitment and policy acceptance: perceptions of governmental legitimacy, satisfaction of fundamental needs (e.g., fair decision making, security), perceived reasons others act the way they do (causal attributions), group identity (e.g., liking, trust), and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. By studying these fundamental aspects of social cognition, this research seeks to identify core principles of cooperation (e.g., enforcement must be legitimized) that can better explain cooperative failures in society (e.g., why regulatory systems sometimes backfire), reconcile competing theories in social science, and improve public policy. The project is mentoring many graduate and undergraduate students, with diverse backgrounds, in research design, data collection, analyses, and communication. Educational resources based on this research are incorporated into a new decision-making course, existing courses in sustainability and experimental economics, and developed for elementary schools. These materials are shared for public use. A free podcast series is created to share important concepts, research designs, and results with the public and scientific community; these podcasts also discuss societal implications, in light of major world events.
The research team conducts five interdisciplinary lab experiments in 5 years. Groups manage a shared resource simulated on the computer in VCWeb (Virtual Commons software), earning money based on their harvests. Surveys measure motivations and perceptions corresponding to each of the five fundamental social cognitions. Experiment 1 examines (a) how communication improves cooperation and (b) the motivations involved in voluntary cooperation and self-organization. Participants will complete the resource governance task in different phases, with and without communication. Psychological effects of communication are correlated with observed levels of cooperation, and used to develop principles for institutional design and public policy. Experiment 2 assesses both communication and enforcement (economic sanctions). This study also examines how non-punitive aspects of enforcement (e.g., justification of sanctions, rehabilitative techniques) improve enforcement and counteract potentially harmful side-effects. Experiment 3 investigates how different voting processes potentially justify, or legitimize enforcement. This experiment clarifies when and how democratic processes and enforcement enhance one another. Experiment 4 examines how preferences for different governance systems (e.g., voting mechanisms) change over time, identifying core motivations that drive institutional evolution and dynamic fluctuations in cooperation. Experiment 5 tests boundary conditions and integrates key findings across each experiment. All results are related to a core theory of how fundamental needs contribute to group commitment, policy acceptance, and voluntary cooperation.
