Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Behavioural economics

A caring majority secures the future

Nature volume 511, pages 165–166 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

An experiment studying people's willingness to sacrifice personal gains so that resources are passed to future generations shows that this occurs only when extractions by free-riders are curbed by majority rule. See Letter p.220

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Leaving enough for those to come.

References

  1. Hauser, O. P., Rand, D. G., Peysakhovich, A. & Nowak, M. A. Nature 511, 220–223 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ostrom, E., Gardner, R. & Walker, J. Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources (Univ. Michigan Press, 1994).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  3. Feldman, A. M. & Serrano, R. Welfare Economics and Social Choice Theory (Springer, 2006).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Fischbacher, U. & Gächter, S. Am. Econ. Rev. 100, 541–556 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Van Lange, P., Rockenbach, B. & Yamagishi, T. (eds) Reward and Punishment in Social Dilemmas (Oxford Univ. Press, 2014).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Nikiforakis, N. & Engelmann, D. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 78, 319–332 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Ertan, A., Page, T. & Putterman, L. Eur. Econ. Rev. 53, 495–511 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Cooper, D. & Kagel, J. in The Handbook of Experimental Economics Vol. 2 (eds Kagel, J. & Roth, A.) (Princeton Univ. Press, in the press).

  9. Kamei, K., Putterman, L. & Tyran, J.-R. Exp. Econ. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10683-014-9405-0 (2014).

  10. Markussen, T., Putterman, L. & Tyran, J. R. Rev. Econ. Stud. 81, 301–324 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Louis Putterman is in the Department of Economics, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.,

    Louis Putterman

Authors
  1. Louis Putterman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Louis Putterman.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Putterman, L. A caring majority secures the future. Nature 511, 165–166 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13510

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13510

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing