Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 26;12(1):17944. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22849-y.
From interpersonal interactions to international arms races, game theorists and social scientists have long studied decision-making in zero-sum situations. Yet, what happens when people can freely choose whether to enter zero-sum situations in the first place? Thirteen studies (including five pre-registered) consistently document evidence for zero-sum aversion-the desire to avoid situations that are (or are believed to be) zero-sum. Across different contexts (economic games, market entry decisions, performance reviews, negotiations, job applications), samples (online participant pool, MBA students, community sample), and designs (within- and between-participant, real and hypothetical decisions), people avoid zero-sum situations that inversely link their and others' outcomes as well as refrain from putting others in such situations. Because people fear that zero-sum situations will be rife with conflict, they exhibit zero-sum aversion even when doing so is costly. Finally, we find that people require zero-sum situations to provide substantially higher payoffs (e.g., compensation) to overcome their zero-sum aversion. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for interpersonal and intergroup conflict.
从人际互动到国际军备竞赛，博弈论家和社会科学家长期以来一直在研究零和情境下的决策。然而，当人们可以自由选择是否首先进入零和情境时，会发生什么呢？十三项研究（包括五项预先注册）一致证明了零和厌恶的存在——即避免处于（或被认为是）零和的情境的愿望。在不同的情境（经济博弈、市场进入决策、绩效评估、谈判、求职）、样本（在线参与者群体、MBA 学生、社区样本）和设计（内部和参与者之间、真实和假设的决策）中，人们避免了那些与他人的结果成反比的零和情境，也避免了让他人处于这样的情境。由于人们担心零和情境会充满冲突，即使这样做代价高昂，他们也会表现出零和厌恶。最后，我们发现，人们需要零和情境提供更高的回报（例如，补偿），才能克服他们的零和厌恶。最后，我们讨论了这对人际和群体冲突的影响。
