Experimental mindset for environmental challenges: the puzzling case of public good contributions

Abstract

The experimental mindset strips down and mimics social constructs in a setting we can use to understand how institutions create or destroy economic value. We explore how to use the mindset to consider climate change mitigation, in which more investment in climate mitigation by the collective, the less costly for each party. Using the lab to capture Conference of the Parties declining-cost environment with a jigsaw puzzle to mimic real-time costs, we find decreasing ‘cost’ of commitment increases contribution but not reaching the public good threshold. Highlighting the economies of scale might be an effective way to elicit greater commitment.