Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

173 Social Trap

A tendency to pursue short-term gains that create long-term losses for the greater group.

A social trap is a situation in which people act to obtain short-term gains and, in so doing, create losses for everyone. It is an extension of the tragedy of the commons, a scenario in which ranchers overgraze cattle on public land, which depletes the land of grasses faster than it can replenish, which then starves all the ranchers’ cattle, including the original overgrazers. The short-term gain was cattle grazing for free, but this behavior set in motion a positive feedback loop of events that caused everyone, ranchers and cattle, to suffer as a result. Social traps are the root cause of numerous economic, environmental, and societal ...