File Download

There are no files associated with this item.

  Links for fulltext
     (May Require Subscription)
Supplementary

Article: Reducing the bystander effect via decreasing group size to solve the collective-risk social dilemma

TitleReducing the bystander effect via decreasing group size to solve the collective-risk social dilemma
Authors
Issue Date1-Dec-2021
PublisherElsevier
Citation
Applied Mathematics and Computation, 2021, v. 410 How to Cite?
Abstract

Collective cooperation is essential to human society, and it exists in many social dilemmas. In the scenario of a collective-risk social dilemma, a group of players have to collectively contribute to a public fund to prevent the tragedy of the commons, such as dangerous climate change, because everybody will lose all their remaining money when the damage happens with a certain probability if the group fails to reach a fixed fundraising target. Yet, it remains largely unclear how the group size affects the probability of reaching the collective target and the mechanism that drives different outcomes of the collective cooperation. Here, we contribute to the literature by exploring the role of group size in the collective-risk social dilemma and the potential underlying mechanism using both model simulations and human experiments. Through simulations we found that the rate of failure for collective cooperation increases for larger groups, along with the arising of bystander effect and a decrease in average contributions, which are confirmed by our experimental observations. We further analyze the patterns of investment behaviors in the experiment setting by categorizing players into cooperators, altruists, and free riders using both a clustering method and a golden standard. We found that altruists who tend to contribute more, rather than cooperators who prefer contributing a fair-share investment, play a crucial role in groups with success outcome in early and/or middle stages of the game. Our results indicate that bystanders are dynamic and their amount depends on the contribution of others. When others contribute less, bystanders also contribute less. If the collective goal is unlikely to achieve, more players choose to be bystanders who strategically contribute less, intriguing the failure of the collective goal. Our findings suggest a potentially effective way to solve the collective-risk social dilemma by reducing the bystander effect through the mechanism design of forming small groups.


Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/346466
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 3.5
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 1.026
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorJiang, Luo Luo-
dc.contributor.authorGao, Jian-
dc.contributor.authorChen, Zhi-
dc.contributor.authorLi, Wen Jing-
dc.contributor.authorKurths, Jürgen-
dc.date.accessioned2024-09-17T00:30:46Z-
dc.date.available2024-09-17T00:30:46Z-
dc.date.issued2021-12-01-
dc.identifier.citationApplied Mathematics and Computation, 2021, v. 410-
dc.identifier.issn0096-3003-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/346466-
dc.description.abstract<p>Collective cooperation is essential to human society, and it exists in many social dilemmas. In the scenario of a collective-risk social dilemma, a group of players have to collectively contribute to a public fund to prevent the tragedy of the commons, such as dangerous <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/climate-change" title="Learn more about climate change from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">climate change</a>, because everybody will lose all their remaining money when the damage happens with a certain <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/mathematics/probability-theory" title="Learn more about probability from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">probability</a> if the group fails to reach a fixed fundraising target. Yet, it remains largely unclear how the group size affects the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/mathematics/probability-theory" title="Learn more about probability from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">probability</a> of reaching the collective target and the mechanism that drives different outcomes of the collective cooperation. Here, we contribute to the literature by exploring the role of group size in the collective-risk social dilemma and the potential underlying mechanism using both model simulations and human experiments. Through simulations we found that the rate of failure for collective cooperation increases for larger groups, along with the arising of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/bystander-effect" title="Learn more about bystander effect from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">bystander effect</a> and a decrease in average contributions, which are confirmed by our experimental observations. We further analyze the patterns of investment behaviors in the experiment setting by categorizing players into cooperators, altruists, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/free-rider" title="Learn more about free riders from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">free riders</a> using both a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/clustering-method" title="Learn more about clustering method from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages">clustering method</a> and a golden standard. We found that altruists who tend to contribute more, rather than cooperators who prefer contributing a fair-share investment, play a crucial role in groups with success outcome in early and/or middle stages of the game. Our results indicate that bystanders are dynamic and their amount depends on the contribution of others. When others contribute less, bystanders also contribute less. If the collective goal is unlikely to achieve, more players choose to be bystanders who strategically contribute less, intriguing the failure of the collective goal. Our findings suggest a potentially effective way to solve the collective-risk social dilemma by reducing the bystander effect through the mechanism design of forming small groups.</p>-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherElsevier-
dc.relation.ispartofApplied Mathematics and Computation-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.titleReducing the bystander effect via decreasing group size to solve the collective-risk social dilemma-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.amc.2021.126445-
dc.identifier.volume410-
dc.identifier.eissn1873-5649-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000685357700010-
dc.identifier.issnl0096-3003-

Export via OAI-PMH Interface in XML Formats


OR


Export to Other Non-XML Formats