American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (44479)	7/29/2010 12:47:29 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) of 71588

Cognitive Bias of the Day: The Zero-Sum Bias Posted by Jeffrey Ellis Jul 21 From Less Wrong comes this post about the zero-sum bias. ========= One of the most pernicious of all human biases is zero-sum bias. A situation involving a collection of entities is zero-sum if one entity’s gain is another’s loss, whereas a situation is positive-sum if the entities involved can each achieve the best possible outcome by cooperating with one another. Zero-sum bias is the tendency to systematically assume that positive-sum situations are zero-sum situations. This bias is arguably the major obstacle to a Pareto-efficient society. As such, it’s very important that we work to overcome this bias (both in ourselves and in broader society). ========= The author (who goes by the handle “multifoliaterose”) speculates on a possible evolutionary explanation for the zero-sum bias. ========= Anatomically modern humans appear to have emerged 200,000 years ago. In the context of human history, economic growth is a relatively recent discovery, only beginning in earnest several thousand years ago. The idea that it was possible to create wealth was probably foreign to our ancestors…… our ancestors lived in contexts in which growth of resources was not happening. In such a context, the way that people acquire more resources for themselves is by taking other people’s resources away. The ancient humans who survived and reproduced most successfully were those who had an intuitive sense that one entity’s gain of resources can only come at the price of another entity’s loss of resources. Iterate this story over thousands of generations of humans and you get modern humans with genetic disposition toward zero-sum thinking. This is where we come from. ============= The zero-sum bias is why so many people have such antipathy towards the rich, and why those emotions can be played upon so easily by politicians. The belief is that for every rich person there must be many poor people who are going without. There is no recognition of the fact that wealth is created (i.e., is a positive-sum situation) and is not a finite resource (i.e., a zero-sum situation). jeffreyellis.org

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next