Climate Games: Experiments on How People Prevent Disaster

Andrews, Talbot M.

doi:doi:10.3998/mpub.12089759

Talbot M. Andrews, Andrew W. Delton, and Reuben Kline

Open Access

Can humanity work together to mitigate the effects of climate change? Climate Games argues we can. This book brings together a decade and a half of experimentation, conducted by researchers around the world, which shows that people can and will work together to prevent disasters like climate change. These experiments, called economic games, put money on the line to create laboratory disasters. Participants must work together by spending a bit of money now to prevent themselves from losing even more money in the future. Will people sacrifice their own money to prevent disaster? Can people make wise decisions? And can people decide wisely on behalf of others? The answer is a resounding yes.

Yet real climate change is a complex social dilemma involving the world's nearly eight billion inhabitants. In the real world, the worst effects of climate change are likely to be felt by developing countries, while most of the decisions will be made by rich, industrialized countries. And while the world as a whole would be better off if all nations reduced their greenhouse gas emissions, any given nation could decide it would be even better off if it continued emitting and let other nations take care of the problem. These disaster experiments test how real people respond to climate change's unique constellation of challenges and deliver a positive message: People will prevent disaster.

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At top, four people hold money. At bottom left, their money is crossed out for contributing too little. At bottom right, they keep their money for contributing enough.

Illustration of the threshold public goods game (1)

From Chapter 2

Fig. 2. The disaster game. Everyone starts with personal money (top panel). They each decide how much to contribute to a group threshold. If the combined contributions are less than the threshold, everyone loses their remaining money (bottom left panel). If the combined contributions are more than or equal to the threshold, everyone keeps their remaining money. (Contributions are lost regardless.)

Illustration of the threshold public goods game (2)

From Chapter 3

Fig. 3. The disaster game. Everyone starts with personal money (top panel). They each decide how much to contribute to a group threshold. If the combined contributions are less than the threshold, everyone loses their remaining money (bottom left panel). If the combined contributions are more than or equal to the threshold, everyone keeps their remaining money.

Illustration of the threshold public goods game (3)

From Chapter 4

Fig. 10. The disaster game. Everyone starts with personal money (top panel). They each decide how much to contribute to a group threshold. If the combined contributions are less than the threshold, everyone loses their remaining money (bottom left panel). If the combined contributions are more than or equal to the threshold, everyone keeps their remaining money. Contributions disappear regardless of whether the threshold is met.

Many groups of four people are shown. Arrows point from one group to a different group that the first group is helping.

Illustration of the threshold public goods game (4)

From Chapter 4

Fig. 11. Among a large set of groups, groups contribute to meet one another’s thresholds. However, help is not reciprocal. If Group A contributes for Group B, then Group B does not contribute for Group A. Group B contributes to help a random other group and Group A is helped by a different, random other group.

University of Michigan Press
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Climate Games: Experiments on How People Prevent Disaster

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