Psychosocial, Motivational, and Cooperative Effects of Communication, Enforcement, and Participatory Decision Making in Resource Dilemmas

合作对一个运转良好的社会至关重要。合作是解决困难的社会问题、维持共享的社会制度和资源（公共资源池）以及提供基本商品和服务（公共产品）的必要条件。社会治理体系通过维护共同利益、鼓励人们遵守规则、减少冲突来促进合作。然而，广泛和持续的合作并不能得到保证。最近的世界事件显示了许多合作失败的例子（例如，全球冲突、政治动荡、环境退化和资源短缺）。必须更好地了解合作决策所涉及的心理机制，以制定更有效的解决这些问题的办法。目前的研究项目考察了与治理的三个重要方面有关的心理过程：沟通、民主决策（如投票）和执行（如监督和经济惩罚）。我们的目标是理解(a)这些治理机制何时以及为什么会促进合作，或者阻碍合作，以及(b)是什么激励人们进行自治，为共同的问题创建他们自己的有效解决方案。该研究项目关注影响人们群体承诺和政策接受的社会认知的五个核心方面：对政府合法性的感知、对基本需求的满足（例如，公平决策、安全）、他人行为方式的感知原因（因果归因）、群体认同（例如，喜欢、信任）以及内在和外在动机。通过研究社会认知的这些基本方面，本研究试图确定合作的核心原则（例如，执法必须合法化），这些原则可以更好地解释社会中的合作失败（例如，为什么监管系统有时会适得其反），调和社会科学中的竞争理论，并改善公共政策。该项目在研究设计、数据收集、分析和交流方面指导了许多不同背景的研究生和本科生。基于本研究的教育资源被纳入新的决策课程、现有的可持续发展课程和实验经济学课程，并为小学开发。这些材料供公众使用。创建了一个免费的播客系列，与公众和科学界分享重要的概念、研究设计和结果；这些播客还根据世界重大事件讨论社会影响。研究小组在5年内进行了5项跨学科的实验室实验。小组管理在VCWeb（虚拟共享软件）计算机上模拟的共享资源，根据他们的收获赚钱。调查测量与五种基本社会认知相对应的动机和感知。实验1检验了(a)沟通如何促进合作；(b)自愿合作和自组织的动机。参与者将在不同的阶段完成资源治理任务，无论是否有沟通。沟通的心理影响与观察到的合作水平相关，并用于制定制度设计和公共政策的原则。实验2评估沟通和执行（经济制裁）。本研究还审查了执法的非惩罚性方面（例如，制裁的正当性、康复技术）如何改善执法和抵消潜在的有害副作用。实验3调查了不同的投票过程如何可能证明或使执法合法化。这一实验阐明了民主进程和执法在何时以及如何相互促进。实验4检验了对不同治理系统（例如，投票机制）的偏好如何随时间变化，确定了驱动制度演变和合作动态波动的核心动机。实验5测试边界条件，并整合每个实验的关键发现。所有的结果都与一个核心理论有关，即基本需求如何促进群体承诺、政策接受和自愿合作。

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.