Personal relative deprivation and the belief that economic success is zero-sum.

Abstract

Why do people view economic success as zero-sum? In seven studies (including a large, nationally representative sample of more than 90,000 respondents from 60 countries), we explore how personal relative deprivation influences zero-sum thinking-the belief that one person's gains can only be obtained at other people's expense. We find that personal relative deprivation fosters a belief that economic success is zero-sum, and that this is true regardless of participants' household income, political ideology, or subjective social class. Moreover, in a large and preregistered study, we find that the effect of personal relative deprivation on zero-sum thinking is mediated by lay perceptions of society. The more people see themselves as having been unfairly disadvantaged relative to others, the more they view the world as unjust and economic success as determined by external forces beyond one's control. In turn, these cynical views of society lead people to believe that economic success is zero-sum. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on social comparisons, the distribution of resources, and the psychological consequences of feeling personally deprived.

Is status a zero-sum game? Zero-sum beliefs increase people’s preference for dominance but not prestige.

“…Consequently, these beliefs increased participants’ interest in dominance. Just as economic downturns (Sirola & Pitesa, 2017) and upward comparisons (Ongis & Davidai, 2021) foster zero-sum beliefs, any impending loss may foster such beliefs and therefore lead people to engage in more dominant behaviors.…”

“…People often view tangible and intangible resources as zero-sum, perceiving one’s gains as inevitably coming at others’ expense (Johnson et al, 2022; Meegan, 2010). For example, people believe that wealthy individuals become rich at the expense of worse-off others (Davidai & Ongis, 2019; Ongis & Davidai, 2021; Różycka-Tran et al, 2015; Sirola & Pitesa, 2017), that minority group members advance at the expense of the majority group (Bobo & Hutchings, 1996; Brown & Jacoby-Senghor, 2021; Esses et al, 1998; Kimmel, 2013; Norton & Sommers, 2011; Smithson et al, 2015), and that other countries and political parties gain at their own country’s and party’s expense (Andrews Fearon et al, 2021; Boyer & Petersen, 2017; Johnson, 2018; Roberts & Davidai, 2021).…”

“…However, although zero-sum beliefs may be influenced by broad, persuasive arguments like those presented in the videos, these beliefs do not exist in a vacuum. People’s subjective beliefs about the nature of social hierarchies are likely to be shaped by objective factors in their environments, including disparities in resource allocation between different employees (Davidai, 2021), organizational cues of impending losses (e.g., Sirola & Pitesa, 2017), the leadership styles of their managers and supervisors (Kakkar & Sivanathan, 2017), the salience of higher-income others (Ongis & Davidai, 2021), the stakes involved in promotion decisions (Roberts & Davidai, 2021), and so forth.…”

The psychology of asymmetric zero-sum beliefs.

“…Recently, it has been shown that such specific zero-sum beliefs (e.g., about gender relations) are malleable, context dependent, and do not necessarily reflect a generalized mindset (e.g., about intergroup relations; Wilkins et al, 2015). For instance, zero-sum beliefs are influenced by perceptions of the economy (Sirola & Pitesa, 2017) and the status-quo (Davidai & Ongis, 2019), mental models of causality (Smithson & Shou, 2016), organizational procedures (Andrews Fearon & Davidai, 2021), and experiences of symbolic threat (Smithson et al, 2015) and personal relative deprivation (Ongis & Davidai, in press). Thus, although a generalized mindset indicates a readiness to view social relations as zero-sum, contextual factors clearly play an important role in determining whether people exhibit these beliefs within any given situation.…”

“Do not teach them how to fish”: The effect of zero-sum beliefs on help giving.

“…Even though life entails many such opportunities for joint gains, people often fail to see them as such, viewing success as a zero-sum game where one’s gains are inevitably offset by others’ losses (Foster, 1965; Johnson et al, 2021; Ongis & Davidai, 2021; Roberts & Davidai, 2021; Różycka-Tran et al, 2015). Such zero-sum beliefs are associated with many adverse personal and societal consequences.…”