Constitutional and Cooperative Decision-Making Lab

About 

“The betterment of humankind depends on the ability of fallible human beings to make decisions, manage resources, and govern themselves. This is the basis of democracy, and of civilization itself.” (Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, 2010)

Constitutions are the “social contracts” (rules, laws, norms and agreements) that govern human affairs and serve as the institutional and social foundation for societies and their systems of government. Many of the world’s most pressing problems emerge from constitutional dilemmas, situations where people disagree about the fundamental social contracts that should govern their lives and society. When managed poorly, these dilemmas undermine cooperation and destabilize society, eroding societal trust and governmental legitimacy, resulting in social and political unrest, economic downturn and ecological degradation. 

Our lab seeks to understand constitutional decision-making processes, to develop a more accurate description of human behavior, inform civic education and guide public policy. Constitutional decision-making involves complex individual and collective (social) reasoning, decision-making, problem-solving and motivational processes that are not adequately understood by social science. We conduct this research with laboratory and classroom experiments that simulate real-world dilemmas and field studies involving stakeholders from actual dilemmas.

Companion lab: State-Reinforced Self-Governance and Social-Ecological Systems Lab.

Key Research Areas

• Science of Democracy and Constitutional Choice
• Decision Science | Behavioral Economics
• Institutional Psychology
• Ostrom Political Economy | Governance and Policy Analysis
• Reasoning | Problem-Solving | Motivation 

Current Projects

• Faustian Bargains
  • In political science, Faustian bargains (“deal with the devil”; Vincent Ostrom 1980) refer to situations where individuals sacrifice individual liberties in exchange for systems of governance and the goods/services governments can provide. However, these “bargains” exist in all human social contracts (e.g., parent-child, boss-employee), and underlying the fundamental constitutions that govern human affairs. This series of studies examines the social-cognitive processes underlying Faustian bargaining in constitutional choice, and the basis for democracy and dictatorship in all aspects of society. We are also developing cognitive, utility, and agent-based models of these processes to better understand how individuals and groups make Faustian bargains when designing governance systems.
• Institutional Evolution
  • Rules, norms, and governance systems evolve as the stakeholders in charge of institutional design change, and their underlying values, beliefs, goals, and reasoning and decision-making processes (e.g., preferences) change. We are conducting experiments and field studies to understand these processes and develop more accurate theoretical and computational descriptions of institutional preference that drives institutional evolution.
• Cooperative Dilemmas
  • Cooperation is essential to society. Cooperative failures increase conflict and contribute to war, economic collapse, and failed provision of vital public goods and services, as well as environmental degradation. This research examines the social-cognitive processes involved in cooperation, including the provision of public goods (e.g., public infrastructure, safety) and the management of ecological systems and resources (e.g., common-pool resource dilemmas).
• Civic Education and Games
  • Humans are curious and learn by doing. This branch of research uses games that simulate real-world dilemmas as educational tools (and scientific instruments) to teach basic knowledge of democratic governance and study human education, learning, and decision-making processes.

Recent Publications

• DeCaro, DeCaro, Janssen, Lee, Graci, & Flener, D. (2024). Learning from regulatory failure: How Ostrom’s restorative justice design principle helps naïve groups create wiser enforcement systems to overcome the tragedy of the commons. PLoS ONE, 19(8): e0307832. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307832
• Bush, DeCaro, & DeCaro. (2023). Playing a social dilemma game as an exploratory learning activity before instruction improves conceptual understanding. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 29(4), 725-246. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000470
• DeCaro, DeCaro, Hotaling, & Appel. (2022). Formalizing the fundamental Faustian bargain: inefficacious decision-makers sacrifice their freedom of choice to coercive leaders for economic security. PLoS ONE 17(9), e0275265. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275265
• DeCaro & DeCaro. (2022). Politically-polarized perceptions of governmental autonomy-support impact internal motivations to comply with U.S. COVID-19 safety guidelines. Motivation and Emotion, 47, 7-27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09974-x

Team 

Daniel DeCaro, Lab Director
daniel.decaro@louisville.edu | 502-852-1166
View Research Profile

Former Students

Alanea Graci, PhD
Emotion Regulation, Reasoning, and Procedural Safeguards in Politically-Polarized Moral Dilemmas. (2025). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4516.
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd/4516

Sarah French, PhD
Applying Exploratory Learning Methods to Sociopolitical Beliefs and Cognition. (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4370.
https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/4370

Rachel Appel, PhD
Formalizing the Faustian bargain within the healthcare domain: an end-of-life approach. (2023).
Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 4209. 
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd/4209

Jason Bush, MS
Promise Scholars Fellow recipient
University Honors, Psychology Honors
Bush, J., DeCaro, M.S., & DeCaro, D.A. (2023). Playing a social dilemma game as an exploratory learning activity before instruction improves conceptual understanding.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 29(4), 725–746. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000470

Dammy Jeboda, BA 
Psychology Honors
Personal Norms and Experience-Mediated Empathy as Precursors to Helping Behaviors. (2025). Psychological and Brain Sciences Honors Thesis.

Devin Flener, BA 
University Honors, Psychology Honors
Understanding the Evolution of Enforcement Systems in Resource Dilemmas. (2023). College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses. Paper 309.
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/honors/309