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Psychological Phenomena

Volunteer's Dilemma

Social Biases and Group Effects

The volunteer's dilemma is a game that models situations in which each of several people can either make a small personal sacrifice that benefits everybody, or instead hold back in the hope that someone else will make that sacrifice instead. If nobody volunteers, the whole group is worse off than if exactly one person had stepped forward, which makes the dilemma a useful model for real situations that need only one person to act, such as calling for help in an emergency or reporting a problem, even though each individual would prefer that somebody else bear the cost. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Social or Interpersonal Phenomenon 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Volunteer's Dilemma
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Quote, Lead section
The volunteer's dilemma is a game that models a situation in which each player can either make a small sacrifice that benefits everybody, or instead wait in hope of benefiting from someone else's sacrifice.
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