Alternative structural solutions to resource dilemmas

Abstract

Groups of six undergraduates were given a resource management task in which they were to harvest points from a regenerating resource pool. Their objective was to maximize individual harvests while maintaining the common resource pool. Following the trials, subjects were asked to vote on how to conduct a second session. The 2 × 2 × 3 between-subjects factorial design crossed two levels of resource use (overuse, optimal use) with two levels of variance of others' purported harvests (low, high) and three levels of type of alternative to free access (leader, equal division, proportional division). As predicted, overuse subjects voted to give up free access to the resource and change the decision structure more frequently than subjects in the optimal use condition. Electing a group leader was the most popular structural solution, followed by proportional division of the resource pool, with equal division being the least acceptable change. As expected, high variance among group members' harvests was found to increase subjects' preferences for structural change in the leader and equal division conditions, while decreasing preferences for change in the proportional division conditions.