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Psychology of Sustainable Development pp 37–57Cite as

Social Dilemmas and Sustainability: Promoting Peoples’ Motivation to “Cooperate with the Future”

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Summary

Social dilemma concepts provide useful insight for understanding how to develop a sustainable society. In this chapter, we first introduce social dilemmas and discuss why they are relevant to sustainability. We then consider how peoples’ social values can be problematic for optimal resolution of social dilemmas. To address the question of how to encourage people to cooperate rather than compete with sustainability initiatives, we introduce self-determination theory’s concept of internalization, then discuss the factors that promote internalization. Finally, we summarize an empirical test of these proposals and show that it is possible to promote involvement in environmentally responsible behavior.

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Authors
  1. Richard Osbaldiston
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  2. Kennon M. Sheldon
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Peter Schmuck

  2. California State University, San Marcos, California, USA

    Wesley P. Schultz

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© 2002 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Osbaldiston, R., Sheldon, K.M. (2002). Social Dilemmas and Sustainability: Promoting Peoples’ Motivation to “Cooperate with the Future”. In: Schmuck, P., Schultz, W.P. (eds) Psychology of Sustainable Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0995-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0995-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5342-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-0995-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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