scholarly journals Altruistic punishment can help resolve tragedy of the commons social dilemmas

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrison W. Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Social Dilemmas ◽  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
Altruistic Punishment ◽  
The Commons

Altruistic Punishment in the Classroom: An Update on the Tragedy of the Commons Extra Credit Question

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-157
Author(s):  
Dylan Selterman
Keyword(s):  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
Entire Class ◽  
Altruistic Punishment ◽  
Extra Credit ◽  
Group Cooperation ◽  
Current Variation ◽  
New Material ◽  
The Commons

A world-famous classroom exercise gives students the choice between 2 points (the communal option) or 6 points (the overconsumption option) of extra credit toward an assignment in their course, but if more than 10% choose 6 points, no one receives any points. In the current variation, students ( N = 795) were also given a third option—to sacrifice their own potential points to take away points from another randomly selected student who chose 6 points. Across seven course sections, 19 students chose this option based on the concept of “altruistic punishment,” with many expressing concern about the entire class losing points. Most students had a positive attitude toward the exercise, viewing that it helped them understand new material and increased their interest in psychology, believing that psychology can help solve social problems. This exercise effectively demonstrates group cooperation dilemmas.

"Once? No. Twenty times? Sure!" Repeated decisions and uncertainty in the tragedy of the commons

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Hardisty ◽  
Howard Kunreuther ◽  
David H. Krantz ◽  
Poonam Arora
Keyword(s):  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
The Commons

scholarly journals Modeling the ecology of parasitic plasmids

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime G. Lopez ◽  
Mohamed S. Donia ◽  
Ned S. Wingreen
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modeling ◽  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Tragedy Of The Commons ◽  
Fitness Costs ◽  
Metapopulation Model ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Modern Biotechnology ◽  
Natural Ecology ◽  
Unique Plasmid ◽  
Competing Populations

AbstractPlasmids are autonomous genetic elements that can be exchanged between microorganisms via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Despite the central role they play in antibiotic resistance and modern biotechnology, our understanding of plasmids’ natural ecology is limited. Recent experiments have shown that plasmids can spread even when they are a burden to the cell, suggesting that natural plasmids may exist as parasites. Here, we use mathematical modeling to explore the ecology of such parasitic plasmids. We first develop models of single plasmids and find that a plasmid’s population dynamics and optimal infection strategy are strongly determined by the plasmid’s HGT mechanism. We then analyze models of co-infecting plasmids and show that parasitic plasmids are prone to a “tragedy of the commons” in which runaway plasmid invasion severely reduces host fitness. We propose that this tragedy of the commons is averted by selection between competing populations and demonstrate this effect in a metapopulation model. We derive predicted distributions of unique plasmid types in genomes—comparison to the distribution of plasmids in a collection of 17,725 genomes supports a model of parasitic plasmids with positive plasmid–plasmid interactions that ameliorate plasmid fitness costs or promote the invasion of new plasmids.

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