Speaker
Description
Introduction
Intensifying partisan animosity poses a significant challenge to sustainability. This research explored whether non-binding communication through numerical pledges of intended behaviour (cheap-talk) could foster cooperative sustainability across politically aligned and mis-aligned groups in an online experimental common-pool resource (CPR) dilemma.
Methodology
American Democrats and Republicans (N = 324 individuals) were randomly allocated to politically homogeneous groups of four. Each group was assigned a communication condition (cheap-talk versus no cheap-talk) and received information manipulating their perceived group political alignment as politically aligned (intra-group condition with all members politically aligned), politically mixed/balanced (inter-group condition with 50:50 political split), or politically mis-aligned (inter-group minority condition where the three other players are members of the other political group).
Results
Sustaining the CPR was challenging for both Democrats and Republicans. Cheap-talk allowed Democrats and Republicans to more effectively sustain their CPR when interacting in politically aligned groups. Cheap-talk also allowed Democrats and Republicans to sustain their CPR when interacting in politically mis-aligned groups, with Democrats showing a stronger effect than Republicans. In politically mixed groups, cheap-talk only had a minimal effect on sustainability.
Conclusion
Our findings demonstrate that both Democrats and Republicans favour interactions with politically aligned groups when sustaining CPRs. However, Democrats more effectively harnessed the cooperation-enhancing effects of communication to cooperate with politically mis-aligned groups when they themselves were politically outnumbered. Overall, our findings suggest that enabling people to express their intentions through simple communication can help bridge political divides, making it easier to work together on shared environmental goals.
