• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Egoism Bias in Social Dilemmas with Resource Uncertainty
  • Contributor: Gustafsson, Mathias; Biel, Anders; Gärling, Tommy
  • imprint: SAGE Publications, 2000
  • Published in: Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1177/1368430200003004002
  • ISSN: 1368-4302; 1461-7188
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p> In Experiment 1 we investigated size estimates and requests from an uncertain resource in a common-pool resource dilemma. In Experiment 2, we examined contributions in a public-good dilemma with an uncertain provision threshold when participants were informed about others’ pessimistically biased estimates of the resource size or provision threshold. Supporting an individual outcome-desirability bias, but refuting a perceptual bias and an egoism bias, participants in Experiment 1 did not estimate size differently, and they cooperated more, rather than less, when they were informed about others’ estimates. Likewise, participants contributed more in Experiment 2 when they were informed about others’ estimates. These results were replicated in Experiment 3, where the outcome did not depend on others’ requests or contributions. </jats:p>