{"pk":27805,"title":"Psychological Underpinnings of Zero-Sum Thinking","subtitle":null,"abstract":"A core proposition in economics is that voluntary\nexchanges benefit both parties. We show that people often\ndeny the mutually beneficial nature of exchange, instead\nusing zero-sum thinking. Participants read about simple\nexchanges of goods and services, judging whether each\nparty to the transaction was better off or worse off\nafterwards. These studies revealed that zero-sum beliefs are\npervasive. These beliefs seem to arise in part due to\nintuitive mercantilist beliefs that money has value over-\nand-above what it can purchase, since buyers are seen as\nless likely to benefit than sellers, and barters are often seen\nas failing to benefit either party (Study 1). Zero-sum beliefs\nare greatly reduced by giving reasons for the exchange\n(Study 2), suggesting that a second mechanism underlying\nzero-sum thinking is a failure to spontaneously take the\nperspective of the buyer. Implications for politics and\nbusiness are discussed.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"intuitive theories"},{"word":"Folk psychology"},{"word":"Judgment & decision-making"},{"word":"Behavioral economics"}],"section":"Publication-based-Talks","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/11b3d7bg","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Samuel","middle_name":"G.B.","last_name":"Johnson","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Bath","department":""},{"first_name":"Jiewen","middle_name":"","last_name":"Zhang","name_suffix":"","institution":"UC Davis","department":""},{"first_name":"Frank","middle_name":"C","last_name":"Keil","name_suffix":"","institution":"Yale","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2018-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/27805/galley/17445/download/"}]}