Weed Management as a Social Dilemma; Alexander Metcalf

 

 

 

 

Alexander Metcalf¹

 

¹Assistant Professor, Human Dimensions Lab, W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

 

 

Effective weed control will require people to act, yet current efforts to inspire action have not fully capitalized on relevant social science regarding human behavior. In this talk, I will describe how weed management constitutes social dilemma – a specific type of societal problem where people’s individual costs and benefits differ from collective interests. Viewing the problem through this lens clarifies why human behavior has been unresponsive to some interventions and reveals promising paths for future investment. Toward solutions, I will explore how different landscape-scale weed management efforts constitute ‘public goods’ which require contributions from specific actors while benefits flow to actors and non-actors alike. I will contrast this view of the problem to the more familiar ‘tragedy of the commons’ which has been uncritically and erroneously applied to weed management challenges. In closing, I will share results from a study of Montana landowners which demonstrate how these theoretical paradigm shifts provide actionable insights for weed extension and outreach programs seeking to inspire coordinated, effective weed control efforts at scale.