Abstract

Economic experiments have led to important advances in our understanding of human adaptation in coupled social-environmental systems. However, these experiments may be costly, which limits their scale and even the external validity of their results. Digital technologies offer great potential to deploy economic experiments at scale, but this approach remains largely untested. Here, we evaluate the feasibility of using mobile computing platforms (smartphones, tablets, and computers) to deploy digital economic experiments that collect players' response to environmental shocks. To do so, we developed a digital version of a well-studied natural resource harvesting game characterized by a renewable common-pool resource harvested in repeated iterations. We recorded a total of 3369 interactions with the outreach material, which led to a total of 740 rounds played; Only 11 players participated in the baseline and treatment games. We show that players' behavior during digital experiments was qualitatively similar to responses observed during in-person games with fishers reported in the literature. Additionally, our exploratory analysis suggests that information about the risk of a shock is not enough to induce adaptation by players and that experiencing the shock is needed. Digital experiments provide an alternative path to study adaptation, but the approach presents its own limitations. Addressing the current limitations, particularly through strategies for engaging players, presents an opportunity for broad application of this approach to understand and inform adaptation to change.