{"id":110616,"date":"2023-08-07T14:49:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T18:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=110616"},"modified":"2023-08-16T13:18:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T17:18:00","slug":"what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does &#8220;Tragedy of the Commons&#8221; Mean? Pinker Explains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What does &#8220;tragedy of the commons&#8221; mean? How do you participate in it, and how does it affect you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his book <em>Rationality<\/em>, Steven Pinker explores why people make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humans-are-irrational\/\">irrational decisions<\/a>. He discusses game theory, which seeks to explain how rational thinking can go out the window when an individual&#8217;s needs are in competition with others&#8217; needs. The tragedy of the commons is an example of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about this fascinating\u2014and sometimes devastating\u2014dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-tragedy-of-the-commons\">The Tragedy of the Commons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What does &#8220;tragedy of the commons&#8221; mean? The tragedy of the commons is a dynamic that applies to situations involving shared resources, where everyone in a group has an individual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-incentive-meaning-and-definition-economics\/\">incentive<\/a> to take as much of that resource for themselves as possible and contribute as little as possible, which ultimately harms everyone. For example, each fisher in a village will be incentivized to catch as many fish as they can so that others don\u2019t take them first. Unfortunately, if everyone is fishing aggressively, the stock is soon depleted\u2014and then no one has enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The same dynamic shows up in any situation where a public good is shared, be it roads, schools, or a military force\u2014<strong>everyone benefits from using these things, but each individual benefits <em>more<\/em> if <em>others<\/em> pay for them<\/strong>. This dynamic also affects how the world\u2019s environmental crisis plays out, as each individual or country is incentivized to consume energy and resources as they wish, hoping that others will curtail <em>their<\/em> own use. However, those others have the same incentives to use as much as they want to, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pinker writes that the most effective way to manage this dilemma is to remove the choice from individuals and instead have an outsider regulate people\u2019s decisions\u2014specifically, a government or organization that oversees how much each individual can take from the shared resource and establishes rules or contracts that individuals must abide by. When \u201cfree riders\u201d are punished for taking too much or not contributing enough (through fines, for example, for failing to pay taxes), everyone is more likely to refrain from the self-benefiting behavior that can drain a public resource because they can trust that others are also refraining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Scarcity and the Tragedy of the Commons&nbsp;<\/strong><br><br>Ironically, the tragedy of the commons can come about either because people are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/plan-for-the-worst-hope-for-the-best\/\">hoping for the best<\/a> from others or because they assume the worst of others. In many of the examples Pinker mentions, like unwillingness to pay for schools, the military, and so on, or in the way both individuals and countries fail to curb their environmental waste, people are hoping for the best from others: They\u2019re hoping that others will step up and do what needs to be done to prevent future problems. But there\u2019s another instinct that can drive the tragedy of the commons, one that comes from assuming the worst of others: a fear of scarcity, which can motivate people to grab what they can, while they can. This is the instinct underpinning the situation of fishers taking more than they should.<br><br>An example of how this can play out was demonstrated by the efforts of the park management of the Petrified Forest in Arizona <a href=\"https:\/\/www.collectorsweekly.com\/articles\/curse-of-the-petrified-forest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to discourage people from taking pieces of petrified wood as souvenirs<\/a>. In the mid-20th century, the park posted signs warning that if theft of rocks samples continued at current rates, the forest would disappear within decades. Unfortunately, the signs had the opposite of their intended effect: They led people to believe that the rocks were scarce, making them want to grab some before they were all gone\u2014especially since it seemed lots of other people were doing the same. Theft rates increased, rather than decreased, as people who fear a resource will be depleted by others are more likely to deplete it themselves.<br><br>In either case, whether people are hoping for the best or fearing the worst in other people, the most effective solution often is, as Pinker suggests, regulation by an outside party, as that\u2019s the only way to establish the trust that will ameliorate either extreme.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does &#8220;tragedy of the commons&#8221; mean? How do you participate in it, and how does it affect you? In his book Rationality, Steven Pinker explores why people make irrational decisions. He discusses game theory, which seeks to explain how rational thinking can go out the window when an individual&#8217;s needs are in competition with others&#8217; needs. The tragedy of the commons is an example of this. Keep reading to learn about this fascinating\u2014and sometimes devastating\u2014dynamic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24],"tags":[1127],"class_list":["post-110616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-society","tag-rationality","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Does &quot;Tragedy of the Commons&quot; Mean? Pinker Explains - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What does &quot;tragedy of the commons&quot; mean? Learn how rational thinking can go out the window when people&#039;s needs are in competition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Does &quot;Tragedy of the Commons&quot; Mean? Pinker Explains\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What does &quot;tragedy of the commons&quot; mean? Learn how rational thinking can go out the window when people&#039;s needs are in competition.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-07T18:49:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-16T17:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1710\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"What Does &#8220;Tragedy of the Commons&#8221; Mean? Pinker Explains\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-07T18:49:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-16T17:18:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/\"},\"wordCount\":697,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Rationality\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/\",\"name\":\"What Does \\\"Tragedy of the Commons\\\" Mean? Pinker Explains - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-08-07T18:49:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-16T17:18:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"What does \\\"tragedy of the commons\\\" mean? Learn how rational thinking can go out the window when people's needs are in competition.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1710},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Does &#8220;Tragedy of the Commons&#8221; Mean? Pinker Explains\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\",\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\"},\"description\":\"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.\",\"sameAs\":[\"rina@shortform.com\"],\"award\":[\"Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)\",\"Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)\",\"Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)\",\"Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)\"],\"knowsAbout\":[\"History\",\"Theology\",\"Government\"],\"jobTitle\":\"Senior SEO Writer\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Does \"Tragedy of the Commons\" Mean? Pinker Explains - Shortform Books","description":"What does \"tragedy of the commons\" mean? Learn how rational thinking can go out the window when people's needs are in competition.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Does \"Tragedy of the Commons\" Mean? Pinker Explains","og_description":"What does \"tragedy of the commons\" mean? Learn how rational thinking can go out the window when people's needs are in competition.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2023-08-07T18:49:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-16T17:18:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1710,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Elizabeth Whitworth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elizabeth Whitworth","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/"},"author":{"name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13"},"headline":"What Does &#8220;Tragedy of the Commons&#8221; Mean? Pinker Explains","datePublished":"2023-08-07T18:49:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-16T17:18:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/"},"wordCount":697,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg","keywords":["Rationality"],"articleSection":["Psychology","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/","name":"What Does \"Tragedy of the Commons\" Mean? Pinker Explains - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2023-08-07T18:49:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-16T17:18:00+00:00","description":"What does \"tragedy of the commons\" mean? Learn how rational thinking can go out the window when people's needs are in competition.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1710},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-does-tragedy-of-the-commons-mean\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Does &#8220;Tragedy of the Commons&#8221; Mean? Pinker Explains"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13","name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elizabeth Whitworth"},"description":"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.","sameAs":["rina@shortform.com"],"award":["Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)","Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)","Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)","Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)"],"knowsAbout":["History","Theology","Government"],"jobTitle":"Senior SEO Writer","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/influence-scarcity-principle-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110616"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110652,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110616\/revisions\/110652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}