Social Traps

When an individual does something—like leave work right at 5 o’clock—they may feel that their action is harmless—they simply want to get home as early as possible.

However, if everyone has an identical approach and conveniently leaves at the same exact time, collective harm is done because resources are limited—there’s now a traffic jam due to sharing insufficient roads!

This example is a collective social trap—a situation in which a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains that, in the long run, may lead to undesirable effects for the group as a whole.

As many drivers continue to pursue their own interests, like thinking that the gap means one lane is moving much faster than another, such paths can fuel social conflict—a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

With such congestion, everyone will be late to arrive home. Now, he must wait even longer! In this case, he’s so caught up in the process—swearing and complaining—and the last thought on his mind is respect and fairness for all commuters.

While social traps are hard to dismantle, one possible solution is to implement tactics and policies to improve situations, such as shifting hours to produce staggered departure times or, if carpooling, pay reduced tolls.

In the end, resolving exposed traps—and not falling prey—is important to prevent unfavorable outcomes that may not be obvious in the beginning.