Investigando o uso sustentável de recursos comuns por meio de um jogo eletrônico

Abstract

This research comprises the development and the use of a video game-based task to evaluate the effects of differential consequences on the consumption of common-pool resources. The game simulates an ocean fishery, in which the research participants need to catch the fish that appear on the screen to earn points and stay alive, at the same time they need to manage the available resources, shared with two other fishers simulated by the computer. Two experiments were conducted. Ninety students from the Universidade Federal de São Carlos participated in Experiment 1, distributed in three experimental conditions: Control, Bonuses, and Penalties. In Bonuses condition, participants earned extra points following responses with moderate intervals. Penalties condition was characterized by the loss of points following short interresponse times. No differential consequences were programmed in the Control condition. The results of Experiment 1 revealed important effects of the differential consequences on the establishment of an optimized pattern of consumption, leading to a fewer number of attempts to complete the game in the Bonuses and Penalties condition. The Experiment 2 aimed to replicate the first one, with some changes implemented to better simulate the social dynamic of the game, and to evaluate the effects of the cultural context on the strategies used by the participants. Participated 91 students from the Kansas State University and 87 students from the Universidade Federal de São Carlos. The results did not point to significant effects of the differential consequences and the cultural context on the number of plays to complete the game. Nevertheless, more detailed analyses revealed the use of different strategies for the management of the available resources depending on the experimental condition and the country in which the experiment was conducted.