Social Dilemmas and Cooperation

Social dilemmas is a situation where one’s must decide what action to take, whether to prioritize the interests of others or personal. In this situation, one’s often experience conflict in determining the action to be taken. One’s may cooperate by prioritizing the interests of others or choosing not to cooperate by prioritizing personal interests. Cooperation is not easy to do because sometimes one’s put their personal interests ahead of others in solving social dilemmas. Personal interests are usually more short-term compared to the interests of others who are usually more long-term. Social dilemmas do not always occur in individuals but can also be in groups. The choice of action that can be taken by these individuals can be influenced by structural factors, psychological factors and dynamic interaction processes. Social dilemmas can occur in various contexts faced by individuals. For example, environments, individual goals in groups, energy conservation, blood donors, use of environmentally friendly vehicles, use of public or private vehicles, bribery and so on. Social dilemma research in Indonesia is still rare. Therefore, research opportunities related to social dilemmas are widely open.