Tarbiat Modarres University

Faculty of Humanity

Ph.D. Thesis of Sociology

Social Dilemma

(Conflict between self interest and collective interest)

And factors that affect Iranian people's behavior in these situation

Mohammad Reza Javadi Yeganeh

Supervisor: Dr. Massoud Chalabi

July 2004

Abstract: Social dilemma is the situation, in which each actor faces with two choices: defective and cooperative. For each actor, defective behavior brings more outcomes with itself. And if a considerable number of actors behave in defective way, each one gets more loss rather than when they behave cooperatively. Theoretical basis of social dilemma analysis consists of two theories: rational choice theory (especially its social version, including social rationality) and also game theory. Effective factors on behavior in social dilemma includes: situational factors, personal factors, and action space. In this research, two methods are used: survey and simulation. Survey consisted of 730 people at the age of 15 and more, resident in Tehran. And in the simulation, 50 student subjects performed two games in front of computer (public goods dilemma and common resource dilemma). Also for testing of hypothesis generally they used from logistic regression. The result of research shows that maximum percentage of cooperative behavior among people in social dilemma situations is 40%. Hypothesis of research are approved.

Key Words: social dilemma, self interest and collective interest, rational choice, social rationality, simulation, action space.