TY - JOUR

T1 - Structuring Communication Effectively—The Causal Effects of Communication Elements on Cooperation in Social Dilemmas

AU - Koessler, Ann Kathrin

AU - Ortiz-Riomalo, Juan Felipe

AU - Janke, Mathias

AU - Engel, Stefanie

N1 - Funding Information: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. Funding for this research was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt-Professorship endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, as well as by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (Germany). We thank Imke Lüdecke, Lea Kolb, Dominik Kohl and Peter Naeve for their valuable support as research assistants, Fabian Thomas for his help in programming the experiment, and the participants of the LEEP conference 2019 as well as the 4th Workshop on Experimental Economics for the Environment in Münster for the discussion. Lastly, we would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful feedback.

PY - 2021/8

Y1 - 2021/8

N2 - Many environmental problems represent social dilemma situations where individually rational behaviour leads to collectively suboptimal outcomes. Communication has been found to alleviate the dilemma and stimulate cooperation in these situations. Yet, the knowledge of the basic elements, i.e. the types of information that need to be provided and exchanged to make communication effective, is still incomplete. Previous research relies on ex post methods, i.e. after conducting an experiment researchers analyse what information was shared during the communication phase. By nature, this ex post categorization is endogenous. In this study, we identify the basic elements of effective communication ex ante and evaluate their impact in a more controlled way. Based on the findings of previous studies, we identify four cooperation-enhancing elements of communication: (i) problem awareness, (ii) identification of strategies, (iii) agreement, and (iv) ratification. In a laboratory experiment with 560 participants, we implement interventions representing these components and contrast the resulting levels of cooperation with the outcomes under free (unstructured) or no communication. We find that the intervention facilitating agreement on a common strategy (combination of (ii) and (iii)) is particularly powerful in boosting cooperation. And if this is combined with interventions promoting problem awareness and ratification, similar cooperation levels as in settings with free-form communication can be reached. Our results are relevant not only from an analytical perspective, but also provide insights for social dilemma situations in which effective communication processes cannot be successfully self-organized, calling for some form of external, structured facilitation or moderation.

AB - Many environmental problems represent social dilemma situations where individually rational behaviour leads to collectively suboptimal outcomes. Communication has been found to alleviate the dilemma and stimulate cooperation in these situations. Yet, the knowledge of the basic elements, i.e. the types of information that need to be provided and exchanged to make communication effective, is still incomplete. Previous research relies on ex post methods, i.e. after conducting an experiment researchers analyse what information was shared during the communication phase. By nature, this ex post categorization is endogenous. In this study, we identify the basic elements of effective communication ex ante and evaluate their impact in a more controlled way. Based on the findings of previous studies, we identify four cooperation-enhancing elements of communication: (i) problem awareness, (ii) identification of strategies, (iii) agreement, and (iv) ratification. In a laboratory experiment with 560 participants, we implement interventions representing these components and contrast the resulting levels of cooperation with the outcomes under free (unstructured) or no communication. We find that the intervention facilitating agreement on a common strategy (combination of (ii) and (iii)) is particularly powerful in boosting cooperation. And if this is combined with interventions promoting problem awareness and ratification, similar cooperation levels as in settings with free-form communication can be reached. Our results are relevant not only from an analytical perspective, but also provide insights for social dilemma situations in which effective communication processes cannot be successfully self-organized, calling for some form of external, structured facilitation or moderation.

KW - Cooperation

KW - Deliberation

KW - Effective communication

KW - Public good

KW - Social dilemma

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104138951&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10640-021-00552-2

DO - 10.1007/s10640-021-00552-2

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85104138951

VL - 79

SP - 683

EP - 712

JO - Environmental and Resource Economics

JF - Environmental and Resource Economics

SN - 0924-6460

IS - 4

ER -