Time, uncertainty, and individual differences in decisions to cooperate in resource dilemmas

Many environmental problems are resource dilemmas that con-tain two components–social and temporal–that encourage indi-viduals not to act in the best interest of the group. Most research has focused on the social component. The authors examined the importance of the temporal component in two resource dilemma tasks. Participants (N = 112) reported their willingness to limit resource consumption in response to hypothetical dilemmas and forfeited extra credit points in response to a real dilemma. Coop-eration rates were higher when the temporal dilemma was dimin-ished, when uncertainty about environmental impacts was low, and for women. Individuals high in both proenvironmentalism and consideration of future consequences sustained high levels of cooperation even in the face of strong temporal dilemmas