Last year, a group of friends and I from several houses gathered for a "Friendsgiving" celebration at UVA. We had a Google sheet to sign up to bring different classic Thanksgiving dishes, and we had everything from turkey and cranberry sauce to sweet potato casserole to green beans to cider to pumpkin pie. Because of our number, we of course faced the classic economics problem: free-riding. No one discussed it then, but looking back now I can clearly see why several of us did not contribute. When there is a large number of people receiving a group benefit, individual members are incentivized not to contribute. By my estimation, there were about four people or so who brought nothing. I myself was added onto the signup sheet with two of my housemates without my knowledge, an easy opportunity not to help out. However, feeling it to be my obligation, I duly contributed to a wonderful evening.
To overcome this problem, the key is restricted benefits. Our hosts could have easily prevented anyone from entering who had no contribution to the meal, or made them pay to enter. But that is not how friends treat each other, and tempers could have flared. We did have enough food for everyone and all the food groups were covered, but this could have easily not been the case. In fact, it might have been better if we had had fewer people, since there would have been less temptation to free ride as each person would know Friendsgiving would not happen if they did not contribute. Instead, we had several free riders. And that was ok, because we loved them, and we were happy to show them grace.
(But also next time, pandemic permitting, I will be guarding the door.)
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