A situation in which all individuals would be better off cooperating but fail to do so because of conflicting interests between individuals that discourage joint action. It means that if every individual worked together, they could reach a situation that is better for everyone. No individual could have reached a better outcome pursuing their own interests. However the individuals do not work together, because they each have other incentives that do not align with the plan for cooperating. Examples of collective action problems: - Climate change. Every country has an interest in economic growth, which often causes pollution. Based on the estimated impacts of climate change, it is fair to say everyone would be better off cooperating, but doing so would decrease growth on the short term. - AI arms race: Most AI leaders have recognized benefits in slowing down parts of AI development, however each company is also incentivized to win the race and build AGI first. Thus it [[We probably won't stop developing superintelligence|seems unlikely we will stop working towards AGI]]. - Making parents stop their kids from using social media. The kid could become an outsider if it is the only without social media. But if we take a school class as example, if all its parents worked together to stop social media use, it'd bring many more benefits.