Zero-sum thinking – The daily blog of behavioral and cognitive economics

How Zero-Sum Beliefs Get in the Way of Fairness

A fairness myth we frequently encounter is what one of the leading decision-making and negotiation scholars, Max Bazerman, calls the “mythical-fixed-pie mindset”: the often-incorrect assumption (also called zero-sum thinking) that one person’s gain has to equal another person’s loss, or that there is only a finite amount of resources to go around. In some cases, this is, of course, true. The number of people who can win in the Olympics is finite; the number of spots available in most legislatures is fixed; and when haggling with a merchant, a lower price for you equals less money for them. But in most workplace situations, more issues are at play, allowing for creative solutions where all parties end up being better off. ….[READ]