Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T10:39:09.945Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why do people believe in a zero-sum economy?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2018

Samuel G. B. Johnson
Samuel G. B. Johnson*
Affiliation:
Division of Marketing, Business, and Society, University of Bath School of Management, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom. sgbjohnson@gmail.comhttp://www.sgbjohnson.com/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Zero-sum thinking and aversion to trade pervade our society, yet fly in the face of everyday experience and the consensus of economists. Boyer & Petersen's (B&P's) evolutionary model invokes coalitional psychology to explain these puzzling intuitions. I raise several empirical challenges to this explanation, proposing two alternative mechanisms – intuitive mercantilism (assigning value to money rather than goods) and errors in perspective-taking.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e172
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carey, S. (2009) The origin of concepts. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fiske, A. P. (1992) The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations. Psychological Review 99(4):689–723. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. G. B., Zhang, J. & Keil, F. C. (2018a) Cognitive biases underpin resistance to international trade. Working paper.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. G. B., Zhang, J. & Keil, F. C. (2018b) Psychological underpinnings of zero-sum thinking. Working Paper. (January 28, 2018; posted Online on February 15, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3117627 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3117627.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (2002) The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature. Viking.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (1776/1999) An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Penguin. (Original work published in 1776).Google Scholar