Page "Social dilemma" Paragraph 26

Another structural solution is reducing group size.

Cooperation generally declines when group size increases.

In larger groups people often feel less responsible for the common good and believe, rightly or wrongly, that their contribution does not matter.

Reducing the scale — for example through dividing a large scale dilemma into smaller more manageable parts — might be an effective tool in raising cooperation.

Additional research on governance shows that group size has a curvilinear effect, since at low numbers, governance groups may also not have the person-power to effectively research, manage, and administer the resource system or the governance process.