Zero-sum mindsets and economic policy preferences | Science

When economists talk about inclusive growth or shared prosperity, they have in mind economic policies generating widespread gains across individuals in society. For example, economists since Adam Smith have argued there are potentially large gains to be had for society from fostering trading with others. However, for voters to support such ‘win-win’ policies partly depends on whether they perceive the world in zero-sum terms, where zero-sum thinking (ZST) is the belief that gains for an individual or group necessarily come at the expense of others. The idea originally stems from work by anthropologist George Foster, based on pre-industrial societies with scarce resources. However, work in psychology and economics has established that zero-sum mindsets are also relevant, perhaps increasingly so, for understanding preferences over economic policies in modern times in advanced economies. This has spurred work to understand the prevalence, nature, and malleability of zero-sum mindsets.

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aem2407