Montero-Porras Eladio, Suchon Rémi, Lenaerts Tom, Fernández Domingos Elias
Artificial Intelligence lab, Vrije Universitet Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Machine Learning Group, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 11;20(9):e0331348. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0331348. eCollection 2025.
Managing shared resources requires balancing personal profit and sustainability. This paper reports on a behavioural experiment testing how extraction defaults-either pro-social or exploitative-impact resource extraction in a common pool resource dilemma (CPRD). We find that an exploitative default increases average extraction compared to a control without a default, while a pro-social default temporarily reduces extraction. The effects of both defaults are temporary, and extraction levels converge to those in the control group, with the pro-social default fading faster. Notably, the influence of defaults depended on individual inclinations, with cooperative individuals extracting more under an exploitative default, and selfish individuals less under a pro-social default. Our findings suggest that while defaults can promote short-term sustainability, their long-term effects are limited, and their effectiveness depends on individual traits.
管理共享资源需要平衡个人利益和可持续性。本文报告了一项行为实验，该实验测试了提取默认设置——亲社会或剥削性——如何在公共资源困境（CPRD）中影响资源提取。我们发现，与没有默认设置的对照组相比，剥削性默认设置会增加平均提取量，而亲社会默认设置会暂时减少提取量。两种默认设置的影响都是暂时的，提取水平会收敛到对照组的水平，亲社会默认设置消失得更快。值得注意的是，默认设置的影响取决于个人倾向，合作型个体在剥削性默认设置下提取更多，而自私型个体在亲社会默认设置下提取更少。我们的研究结果表明，虽然默认设置可以促进短期可持续性，但其长期影响是有限的，其有效性取决于个体特征。
