The DOI matches its Crossref record; 34 of the 34 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Zero-Sum Bias: Perceived Competition Despite Unlimited Resources
Open accessAbstract
Zero-sum bias describes intuitively judging a situation to be zero-sum (i.e., resources gained by one party are matched by corresponding losses to another party) when it is actually non-zero-sum. The experimental participants were students at a university where students' grades are determined by how the quality of their work compares to a predetermined standard of quality rather than to the quality of the work produced by other students. This creates a non-zero-sum situation in which high grades are an unlimited resource. In three experiments, participants were shown the grade distribution after a majority of the students in a course had completed an assigned presentation, and asked to predict the grade of the next presenter. When many high grades had already been given, there was a corresponding increase in low grade predictions. This suggests a zero-sum bias, in which people perceive a competition for a limited resource despite unlimited resource availability. Interestingly, when many low grades had already been given, there was not a corresponding increase in high grade predictions. This suggests that a zero-sum heuristic is only applied in response to the allocation of desirable resources. A plausible explanation for the findings is that a zero-sum heuristic evolved as a cognitive adaptation to enable successful intra-group competition for limited resources. Implications for understanding inter-group interaction are also discussed.
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“People often default to thinking that someone else's gain-especially someone from a competing group-necessitates a loss to themselves, and vice versa 166,167 .”
From Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response (2020) · cites this paper as [167]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Meegan, D. V.
- Affiliations
- University of Guelph (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Meegan, Daniel V.
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 1
- Pages
- 191-191
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3153800
- OpenAlex
- W2030747588
- Cited by
- 114
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- perceived competition, grade prediction, grade distribution, cognitive adaptation, intergroup interaction, resource allocation, social cognition
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