Using a Computer to Study the Commons Dilemma

Hardin s 1968 concept of a "commons dilemma" has received much attention from behavioral scientists concerned with current social and environmental problems that deal with shared resources. The dilemma is that selfish, competitive behavior which appears to be advantageous to the individual actually depletes shared resources to the long-term disadvantage of the group. Various laboratory techniques have been employed to study cooperation and competition in commons dilemma simulations. Two programs are described, which use a multiuser computer system and facilitate the operation of one such simulation procedure.