EGOCENTRIC INTERPRETATIONS OF FAIRNESS IN ASYMMETRIC, ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL DILEMMAS - EXPLAINING HARVESTING BEHAVIOR AND THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION

This research explores the effects of egocentric interpretations of fa irness, expectations about other actors' harvesting decisions, and com munication on the focal actor's harvesting decisions in asymmetric soc ial dilemmas. We found support for the predictions that egocentrism ex ists in perceptions of fairness in asymmetric dilemmas, overharvesting is positively related to the amount of egocentrism, and egocentrism i s stronger before discussion than after discussion. Furthermore, in a comparison between asymmetric and symmetric dilemmas, we found that eg ocentrism and overharvesting were greater in asymmetric dilemmas than in symmetric dilemmas. Finally, the results indicate that among certai n actors, overharvesting in asymmetric dilemmas is positively related to the amount of harvesting expected from the other parties. This stud y contributes to the social dilemma literature by (1) introducing the idea of egocentric interpretations of fairness as an explanation for o verharvesting behavior, (2) demonstrating that egocentrism is more pro nounced in asymmetric versus symmetric dilemmas, (3) suggesting that t he reduction of egocentric interpretations of fairness is another reas on why communication enhances cooperative behavior, and (4) demonstrat ing that beliefs about what others will do is related to harvesting de cisions in asymmetric as well as symmetric dilemmas. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.