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。需要合作来解决棘手的社会问题，维持共享的社会制度和资源(共享资源)，并提供基本的产品和服务(公共产品)。社会治理体系通过保护共同利益、鼓励人们遵守规则和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、政治动乱、环境退化和资源匮乏)。必须更好地了解合作决策中涉及的心理机制，以制定更有效的解决这些问题的办法。目前的研究项目审查了与治理的三个重要方面相关的心理过程：沟通、民主决策(例如投票)和执行(例如监测和财政惩罚)。目标是了解(A)这些治理机制何时以及为什么促进或阻碍合作，以及(B)是什么激励人们自治，为共同的问题创造他们自己的有效解决方案。该研究项目着眼于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：政府合法性的感知、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)、群体认同感(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，这项研究试图确定合作的核心原则(例如，强制执行必须合法化)，这些原则可以更好地解释社会中的合作失败(例如，为什么监管制度有时适得其反)，协调社会科学中相互矛盾的理论，并改进公共政策。该项目正在指导许多不同背景的研究生和本科生，在研究设计、数据收集、分析和交流方面。基于这项研究的教育资源被纳入一门新的决策课程，即现有的可持续发展和实验经济学课程，并为小学开发。这些材料是共享的，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。研究团队在5年内进行了5次跨学科的实验室实验。小组在VCWeb(虚拟共享软件)中管理计算机上模拟的共享资源，根据他们的收获赚钱。调查衡量了与五种基本社会认知中的每一种相对应的动机和认知。实验1考察了(A)交流如何促进合作，以及(B)自愿合作和自组织所涉及的动机。参与者将在不同阶段完成资源治理任务，有沟通和无沟通。沟通的心理影响与观察到的合作水平相关，并被用来制定机构设计和公共政策的原则。实验2评估了沟通和执行(经济制裁)。这项研究还审查了执法的非惩罚性方面(例如，制裁的理由、改过自新的技术)如何改善执法并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潜在地证明执法是合理的，或者是合法化的。这项实验阐明了民主进程和执法何时以及如何相互促进。实验4考察了对不同治理制度(例如，投票机制)的偏好如何随着时间的推移而变化，确定了推动机构演变和合作动态波动的核心动机。实验5测试边界条件，并在每个实验中整合关键结果。所有结果都与一个核心理论有关，即基本需求如何有助于群体承诺、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.