Abstract
In a situation with a limited common resource, cooperation between individuals sharing the resource is essential. However, people often act upon self-interest in irrational ways that threaten the long-term survival of the whole group. A lack of sustainable or environmentally responsible behavior is often observed. In this study, we examine how the maximization of benefits principle works in a wider social interactive context of personality preferences in order to gain a more realistic insight into the evolution of cooperation. We used time perspective (TP), a concept reflecting individual differences in orientation towards past, present, or future, and relevant for making sustainable choices. We developed a personality-driven agent-based model that explores the role of personality in the outcomes of social dilemmas and includes multiple facets of diversity: (1) The agents have different behavior strategies: individual differences derived by applying cluster analysis to survey data from 22 countries (N = 10,940) and resulting in 7 cross-cultural profiles of TP; (2) The non-uniform distribution of the types of agents across countries; (3) The diverse interactions between the agents; and (4) diverse responses to those interactions in a well-mixed population. As one of the results, we introduced an index of overall cooperation for each of the 22 countries, which was validated against cultural, economic, and sustainability indicators (HDI, dimensions of national culture, and Environment Performance Index). It was associated with higher human development, higher individualism, lower power distance, and better environmental performance. The findings illustrate how individual differences in TP can be simulated to predict the ways people in different countries solve the personal vs. common gain dilemma in the global limited-resource situation. This interdisciplinary approach to social simulation can be adopted to explain the possible causes of global environmental issues and to predict their possible outcomes.
Highlights
The need for sustainability was clearly articulated back in 1987, when Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway, presented her report [1], which defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
We developed a personalitydriven agent-based model that explores the role of personality in the outcomes of social dilemmas and includes multiple facets of diversity: (1) The agents have different behavior strategies: individual differences derived by applying cluster analysis to survey data from 22 countries (N = 10,940) and resulting in 7 cross-cultural profiles of time perspective (TP); (2) The non-uniform distribution of the types of agents across countries; (3) The diverse interactions between the agents; and (4) diverse responses to those interactions in a well-mixed population
The present study provides an example of the way social simulation approach can be used to link individual-level psychological factors with group-level behavioral outcomes in a social dilemma situation, taking into account individual differences and the dynamics of human interaction
Summary
The need for sustainability was clearly articulated back in 1987, when Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway, presented her report [1], which defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The overall situation resembles more and more the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ [4], a classical social dilemma. It is a situation in which a shared resource is being overharvested and depleted by rational, utility-maximizing individuals unwilling to cooperate and sacrifice their own comfort in the short term for the long-term benefit of all. With respect to our over-harvesting of the Earth’s resources, the awareness of the problem is not enough to bring about changes in our actions. In order to understand the potential mechanisms of change, we need to explore the ways the attitudes, norms, and behaviors of individuals translate to the outcomes of social dilemmas at the group level
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