The survival of the conformist: social pressure and renewable resource management

Abstract

This paper examines the role of other-regarding behavior as a mechanism for the establishment and maintenance of cooperation in resource use under variable social and environmental conditions. By coupling resource stock dynamics with social dynamics concerning compliance to a social norm prescribing non-excessive resource extraction in a common pool resource, we show that when reputational considerations matter and a sufficient level of social stigma affects the violators of a norm, sustainable outcomes are achieved. We find large parameter regions where norm-observing and norm-violating types coexist, and analyze to what extent such coexistence depends on the environment.

Reference

Tavoni, A., Schluter, M., and Levin, S. April 2012. The survival of the conformist: social pressure and renewable resource management. Journal of Theoretical Biology, v.299, pp.152-161.