Abstract

Car sharing represents a promising solution for sustainable transportation. Considering that there are already many cars that are not used to their full capacity, car sharing communities, whereby a group of people share access to a car, represent a sustainable alternative. However, sharing a car within a community results in the challenge of shared contributions and shared requests and thus, constitutes a social dilemma. From a social dilemma perspective, rational individualistic interests collide with collective interests of the sharing group: While each member would be better off contributing as little as possible and using the car as much as possible, it is in the collective interest of the group that each member pays a fair share and uses the resource fairly. This paper analyzes the problem of contributing to a shared car through the social dilemma framework and focuses on two potential factors that might influence drivers’ behavior: power (e.g., sanctions, expertise) and trust mechanisms (i.e., presenting badges) used by the car sharing community. This paper presents the results of two laboratory experiments. Study 1 (N = 183) reveals that power mechanisms, e.g., sanctions, affect the contribution to a shared car. Study 2 (N = 246) replicates the results of Study 1 and further shows that the presence of a trust mechanism (i.e., badge system) shapes the impact of power on contributions. The current research provides valuable insights for research on car sharing and the sharing economy in general and is particularly relevant for the constitution of sharing communities.

摘要

汽车共享是可持续交通的一种有前途的解决方案。考虑到已经有很多汽车没有充分利用，汽车共享社区，即一群人共享汽车，代表了一种可持续的替代方案。然而，在社区内共享汽车会导致共享贡献和共享请求的挑战，从而构成社会困境。从社会困境的角度来看，理性的个人利益与共享群体的集体利益发生冲突：虽然每个成员都尽可能少地贡献，尽可能多地使用汽车，但每个人都符合群体的集体利益。会员支付公平的份额并公平地使用资源。本文通过社会困境框架分析了共享汽车的贡献问题，并重点关注可能影响驾驶员行为的两个潜在因素：汽车使用的权力（例如，制裁、专业知识）和信任机制（例如，出示徽章）共享社区。本文介绍了两个实验室实验的结果。研究 1 (N  = 183）揭示了权力机制，例如制裁，会影响对共享汽车的贡献。研究 2 ( N  = 246) 复制了研究 1 的结果，并进一步表明信任机制（即徽章系统）的存在塑造了权力对贡献的影响。目前的研究为汽车共享和共享经济的研究提供了有价值的见解，尤其与共享社区的构成有关。