Collective4 people, 15 beansEach draws 1-3 beans each timeRemaining beans double each timePerson with most beans “wins”

= Recipe for Disaster

ExternalityPerson with most

beans “wins”Pass problems on to

others

= Recipe for Disaster

Time DelayWhy worry today about tomorrow’s

problems?

= Recipe for disaster

Sliding ReinforcerWhat works once should work always.

= Recipe for disaster

What is common among all?Me-here-now (“greedy”) thinking

Versus

Long-term, global (cooperative) thinking

Social traps are situations where what looks like a good choice to me right now turns out to be the wrong choice for society (usually

including me) in the long run.

me-here-now

me-here-now

Longterm,Global

No Problem

Longterm,Global

Social Trap

Collective Social TrapAlso “Tragedy of the

Commons”• Occurs when there is a shared

resource (e.g., air, water)• A person is thinking that their small

effect won't matter, but it all adds up to a big problem when many people's small effects add together.

• Examples???

Externality Social Trap• A person is thinking that their

action will have negative effects, but because the effects don't happen to them but happen to others (including other generations), they decide to do it anyway.

• Examples???

Time Delay Social Trap• A person is thinking that their

action today will result in a negative effect to themselves and/or society in the future, but they decide to do it anyway.

• Examples???

Sliding ReinforcerSocial Trap

• A person is thinking that the first time they did the action, they benefited so they repeat the action. But each time they repeat the action, they get less and less benefit until the costs outweigh the benefit and the costs get steadily worse. Examples???

Avoiding Social Traps• Education: Let people know about

all the long term consequences and the social trap that is before them.– Pros?

•People willingly cooperate– Cons?

•People may not cooperate

Avoiding Social Traps• Rules/Laws: Make rules/laws to stop

people from doing the wrong thing.– Pros?

•People will follow the law or suffer the consequences

– Cons?•Laws are broken; hard to enforce

Avoiding Social Traps• Pay Up Front: Bring all the long term,

societal consequences up front. This way, even people only thinking of me-here-now still make the right decision.

• Pros?– It works

• Cons?– It is hard to determine long term and

societal costs; all have to do it.

Why do we get ourselves into Environmental Problems?

Social Traps

Ignorance (rarely)

Attitudes

Attitudes• Rosy Optimism: ignore problems• Frontier Attitude: believe we will

never run out• Tech Fix: trust science to solve all

problems• Gloom-And-Doom: feel useless to

stop problems• How do these attitudes lead to or

perpetuate environmental problems?

SolutionReplace with Sustainability

Is this how you feel?

• Get Fuzzy, 9/4/01

For Quiz: be able to• Define social traps• List and define specific social traps• Give examples for each social trap• Given an environmental problem,

recognize applicable social traps• Describe ways to avoid social traps and

their pros and cons• List the 4 attitudes given in class that affect the

way people look at and act upon environmental problems. For each attitude, what is the problem with holding that attitude? What attitude should replace these?