Paradoxical effects of altruism on efforts to mitigate climate change

Article Article scientifique Article Paradoxical effects of altruism on efforts to mitigate climate change eng 2022-07-29 2022-07-29 author Fossas Tenas Ariadna 898620 author Ibelings Bastiaan Willem 781963 author Kasparian Jérôme 0000-0003-2398-3882 662563 author Krishnakumar Jaya 26462 author Lucchetti Jérémy 788145 13072 10.1038/s41598-022-17535-y 35906481 2045-2322 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-17535-y <p>It is common wisdom that altruism is a crucial element in addressing climate change and other public good issues. If individuals care about the welfare of others (including future generations) they can be expected to unilaterally adapt their behaviour to preserve the common good thus enhancing the wellbeing of all. We introduce a network game model featuring both altruism and a public good (e.g. climate) whose degradation affects all players. As expected, in an idealistic fully connected society where all players care about each other, increasing altruism results in a better protection of the public good. However, in more realistic networks where people are not all related to each other, we highlight an intrinsic trade-off between the effects of altruism on reducing inequality and the preservation of a global public good: the consumption redistribution generated by a higher altruism is partly achieved by lowering income transfers towards protection of the public good. Therefore, it increases overall consumption and is thereby detrimental to the public good. These results suggest that altruism, although good from a welfarist point of view, is not in itself sufficient to simultaneously solve public good and inequality issues.</p> Dewey 550 Dewey 330 Dewey 301 Dewey 500.2 Dewey 333.7-333.9 18 Institut des sciences de l'environnement 0DB 35 Groupe de physique appliquée 135 41 Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau 153 114 Institute of Economics and Econometrics S2 122 Département de sociologie T4 false 803 Groupe Kasparian 938 ISE Pôle Sciences 941 ISE Pôle Informatique environnementale 943 ISE Climat Scientific reports 12 1 338820ed-366d-4a17-9a7e-7652834ad36c Article (Published version) Public Article-scientifique-from-unpaywall.pdf 1512861 application/pdf CC BY openAccess Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement Faculté des sciences / Section de physique / Groupe de physique appliquée Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau Faculté d'économie et de management / Institute of Economics and Econometrics Faculté des sciences de la société / Département de sociologie

Title	Published in	Year	Views	Downloads

Altruism, Common good and Networks		2023	528	104
Paradoxical effects of altruism on efforts to mitigate climate change	Scientific reports	2022	406	169

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