games · social
Volunteer's dilemma
The gate is broken. Someone has to fix it.
A group needs one person to do an unpleasant job: stop and fix the broken gate. If at least one person volunteers, everyone benefits. If no one volunteers, everyone suffers a larger cost. Volunteering is costly for the person who does it.
Will you volunteer, or wait and hope someone else does?
Everyone prefers that someone else does the job.
If you believe others will volunteer, you wait.
If everyone reasons the same way, no one volunteers and the whole group is worse off.
The dilemma is that the good outcome needs a volunteer, yet each person hopes to be the one who free rides.