I am trying to identify a specific sociological phenomena which seems pretty obvious to me that it is well known and studied but after quite of googling, its name remains elusive - I'm just not hitting the right search terms.
Imagine a social situation where there are many individuals with a competing interest and a way to satisfy it. There is a burden associated with realizing these interests and there are rules or norms of the situation. A selfish individual can benefit from not obeying those rules. BUT, if enough individuals start act in selfish ways - a race to skip the line, if you will - the whole system breaks and, without it, ensuing chaotic situation is less efficient for realizing the interests of an average individual than in the case where everyone is obeying the rules!
a) Skipping the queue
Classic example is queue. Ignoring common understanding of fair queuing, selfish individuals can benefit but here tolerance is low - successful skips encourages others to ignore the rules, which quickly leads to queues to skip queues, made-up exceptions and ultimately creating chaos.
b) Leaving the roundabout
There is a traffic rule where cars that leave the roundabout must indicate so with their outer turn light. The rule is in place so that car that wants to enter roundabout on the next entrance can do so without without necessary wait. At the same time, turning on indicator is a bother to some people - its easier to just move through without it, but if everyone is using it, it makes traffic more efficient and everyone benefits from it. On the other hand, if considerable share of people don't bother for extended time, everyone has the initiative to not bother as well.
c) Vaccinating against deadly disease
Let say there is a disease for which there is a effective vaccine. But the vaccine has nasty side-effect manifesting perhaps 1-10000 where treated patient dies or suffer horrible consequences. Let say that everyone is safe is everyone is vaccinated and collective immunity holds until share of vaccinated drops below certain level and ensuing epidemic creates massive suffering. Point is that no matter what are the odds, it is natural for a individual to try to avoid vaccinating, to enjoy safe environment and avoiding any risks associated with vaccine.
What are such situations called? These seems to me so ubiquitous and so relevant, but I don't know its name.
