There's a missing link in British public life and it underpins crises from the BBC to our prisons | Rafael Behr

"There are other players but you can't interact with them. The sum of collective contributions will be trebled, then shared equally among all players. What do you do? If everyone submits all their money, all get richer. But if everyone except you pays in, you can enjoy the collective payout while retaining your original stash. The flaw in the selfish strategy is that other people might have the same idea."

"This is the public goods game, an experiment that economists and psychologists use, with many rule variations, to test conditions under which people pool or hog resources. It is a simple but useful tool for unravelling some of the mess in British politics. For example, it illuminates a link between two stories that do not, on the face of it, seem connected the scandal of prisoners accidentally released from jail and a crisis in the BBC over alleged institutional bias."

"The key is collective identity. A routine finding in the game is that participants' willingness to share goes up when they feel part of a group. It doesn't have to be a deep connection. Picking sides with a coin toss is sufficient to make team heads and team tails display heightened solidarity within their tribes. The political implications are obvious."

A public goods game presents a coordination dilemma: pooled contributions are multiplied and shared, yet individual incentive favors free-riding. Cooperation yields mutual benefit if many contribute, but widespread defection produces no collective gain. Experiments show group identity raises willingness to contribute, even when that identity is arbitrarily assigned. Minimal cues like coin-toss teams produce stronger within-group solidarity. Political consequences follow: taxpayers support spending that benefits themselves or similar others but resist funding perceived as aiding undeserving outsiders. Convicted criminals rank low as beneficiaries, making political advocacy for well-resourced prisons difficult despite public-safety arguments about reducing reoffending.

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