Cargando…

Understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: From a cognitive psychology perspective

The tragedy of the commons refers to the overuse of resources which are rival in consumption but lack excludability and it also refers to rent dissipation. While the tragedy of the anticommons is a tragedy closely connected with underuse of resources that are rival in consumption and with too strong...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yang, Xiaowei, Yang, Shiqi, Wang, Yuejin, Zhang, Shuyu, Luo, Songmei
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9531963/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36204729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.998642
_version_ 1784802008915509248
author Yang, Xiaowei
Yang, Shiqi
Wang, Yuejin
Zhang, Shuyu
Luo, Songmei
author_facet Yang, Xiaowei
Yang, Shiqi
Wang, Yuejin
Zhang, Shuyu
Luo, Songmei
author_sort Yang, Xiaowei
collection PubMed
description The tragedy of the commons refers to the overuse of resources which are rival in consumption but lack excludability and it also refers to rent dissipation. While the tragedy of the anticommons is a tragedy closely connected with underuse of resources that are rival in consumption and with too strong excludability. The prior studies proved that the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anticommons are symmetric from the perspective of pure mathematics, especially the game theory, which was later refuted by behavioral economics experiments. According to them, the tragedy of the anticommons is severer than the tragedy of the commons. The asymmetry of the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anticommons is a paradox by these different research methods. This paradox shows that there are imperfections in the completely rational economic man hypothesis set up by neoclassical economics. As a fundamental theory, the tragedy of the commons is quite influential in many disciplines, such as microeconomics, public sector economics, ecological economics, environmental economics, management, sociology, property law, and political science. And the tragedy of the anticommons theory has also opened its door of both theoretical research and practical implications since its acceptance by Nobel laureate Buchanan, the main founder of public choice school. Only when theoretical issues are thoroughly discussed and made clear enough, can people avoid misunderstanding or misusing the commons theory. Thus, it is necessary to elucidate the paradox between them. Based on Simon’s bounded rationality, Kahneman and Tversky’s prospect theory, value function, Thaler’s mental accounting, endowment effect, and other cognitive psychological tools, this study clearly shows that agents’ decision-making process is not just based on the long-believed marginal benefit and marginal cost analysis advocated by traditional neoclassical economists. Agents’ decision-making is a process in which agents selectively absorb, code the objective marginal revenue and marginal cost, and feed relevant information to their brain. Therefore, what plays a directly decisive role is not the objective marginal revenue and marginal cost per se, but the mentally perceived subjective utility of marginal revenue and marginal cost by the human brain. Followed by this research clue, the paradox between the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anticommons is elucidated from the perspective of cognitive psychology.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9531963
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-95319632022-10-05 Understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: From a cognitive psychology perspective Yang, Xiaowei Yang, Shiqi Wang, Yuejin Zhang, Shuyu Luo, Songmei Front Psychol Psychology The tragedy of the commons refers to the overuse of resources which are rival in consumption but lack excludability and it also refers to rent dissipation. While the tragedy of the anticommons is a tragedy closely connected with underuse of resources that are rival in consumption and with too strong excludability. The prior studies proved that the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anticommons are symmetric from the perspective of pure mathematics, especially the game theory, which was later refuted by behavioral economics experiments. According to them, the tragedy of the anticommons is severer than the tragedy of the commons. The asymmetry of the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anticommons is a paradox by these different research methods. This paradox shows that there are imperfections in the completely rational economic man hypothesis set up by neoclassical economics. As a fundamental theory, the tragedy of the commons is quite influential in many disciplines, such as microeconomics, public sector economics, ecological economics, environmental economics, management, sociology, property law, and political science. And the tragedy of the anticommons theory has also opened its door of both theoretical research and practical implications since its acceptance by Nobel laureate Buchanan, the main founder of public choice school. Only when theoretical issues are thoroughly discussed and made clear enough, can people avoid misunderstanding or misusing the commons theory. Thus, it is necessary to elucidate the paradox between them. Based on Simon’s bounded rationality, Kahneman and Tversky’s prospect theory, value function, Thaler’s mental accounting, endowment effect, and other cognitive psychological tools, this study clearly shows that agents’ decision-making process is not just based on the long-believed marginal benefit and marginal cost analysis advocated by traditional neoclassical economists. Agents’ decision-making is a process in which agents selectively absorb, code the objective marginal revenue and marginal cost, and feed relevant information to their brain. Therefore, what plays a directly decisive role is not the objective marginal revenue and marginal cost per se, but the mentally perceived subjective utility of marginal revenue and marginal cost by the human brain. Followed by this research clue, the paradox between the tragedy of the commons and the tragedy of the anticommons is elucidated from the perspective of cognitive psychology. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9531963/ /pubmed/36204729 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.998642 Text en Copyright © 2022 Yang, Yang, Wang, Zhang and Luo. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Yang, Xiaowei
Yang, Shiqi
Wang, Yuejin
Zhang, Shuyu
Luo, Songmei
Understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: From a cognitive psychology perspective
title Understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: From a cognitive psychology perspective
title_full Understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: From a cognitive psychology perspective
title_fullStr Understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: From a cognitive psychology perspective
title_full_unstemmed Understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: From a cognitive psychology perspective
title_short Understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: From a cognitive psychology perspective
title_sort understanding the paradox between tragedies of the commons and the anticommons: from a cognitive psychology perspective
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9531963/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36204729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.998642
work_keys_str_mv AT yangxiaowei understandingtheparadoxbetweentragediesofthecommonsandtheanticommonsfromacognitivepsychologyperspective
AT yangshiqi understandingtheparadoxbetweentragediesofthecommonsandtheanticommonsfromacognitivepsychologyperspective
AT wangyuejin understandingtheparadoxbetweentragediesofthecommonsandtheanticommonsfromacognitivepsychologyperspective
AT zhangshuyu understandingtheparadoxbetweentragediesofthecommonsandtheanticommonsfromacognitivepsychologyperspective
AT luosongmei understandingtheparadoxbetweentragediesofthecommonsandtheanticommonsfromacognitivepsychologyperspective