RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Extrinsic motivators drive children’s cooperation to conserve forests
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.10.26.466023
DO 10.1101/2021.10.26.466023
A1 Bowie, Aleah
A1 Tan, Jingzhi
A1 Zhou, Wen
A1 White, Philip
A1 Stoinski, Tara
A1 Su, Yanjie
A1 Hare, Brian
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/12/20/2021.10.26.466023.abstract
AB Forests are essential common-pool resources. It is increasingly critical to nurture a lifelong concern for forest health both locally and globally. Here, in two experiments, we demonstrate that school age children (6-18 yrs. old; N>1000;) of three nationalities (China, D. R. Congo and U.S.) do not have levels of intrinsic motivation to allow for successful cooperation in common-pool goods games requiring them to maintain a forest. We instead find that the size, timing, and certainty of receiving individual payoffs from cooperation significantly boost the odds of successful conservation efforts. We also provide evidence that the experience of playing this game increases longer term motivation to conserve forests. Results have implications for designing policy and curriculum to encourage collective action for forest conservation.One Sentence Summary Extrinsic motivation boosts concern for forests among children and adolescents in the United States, China, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.