Inequality hinders group efforts to avoid environmental disasters

Using a threshold public good experiment, we examine how varying degrees of inequality in resources and differences in risk of loss among players affect the success of group efforts to avoid a common loss. We find that when the poor face greater risk than the rich, contributions and success in reaching the threshold decrease with increasing inequality in funds available. This occurs not because the poor do not make a greater effort when they face higher risk but rather because the rich, who control most of the resources, tend to lower their contributions when they face the lower risk, and because a subset of the rich are not averse to inequality. These results highlight the challenges confronting parties in real-world situations, such as forest communities threatened by wildfire or countries confronting climate change, where group efforts are necessary if losses are to be avoided and the parties differ widely in available resources and in the risks they face.