Economics Wins, Psychology Loses, and Society Pays

Max H. Bazerman; Deepak  Malhotra

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Chapter | Social Psychology and Economics | 2006

Economics Wins, Psychology Loses, and Society Pays

by Max H. Bazerman and Deepak Malhotra

Keywords: Economics; Social Psychology; Society; Cost vs Benefits;

Format: Print

Citation:

Bazerman, Max H., and Deepak Malhotra. "Economics Wins, Psychology Loses, and Society Pays." In Social Psychology and Economics, edited by David de Cremer, J. Keith Murnighan, and Marcel Zeelenberg, 263–280. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006.

About the Authors

Max H. Bazerman

Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

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Deepak Malhotra

Eli Goldston Professor of Business Administration

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

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More from these Authors

Article | Journal of Public Economics | January 2020

The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy

Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra and Christopher Poliquin

There have been dozens of high-profile mass shootings in recent decades. This paper presents three main findings about the impact of mass shootings on gun policy. First, mass shootings evoke large policy responses. A single mass shooting leads to a 15% increase in the number of firearm bills introduced within a state in the year after a mass shooting. This effect increases with the extent of media coverage. Second, mass shootings account for a small portion of all gun deaths but have an outsized influence relative to other homicides. Third, when looking at bills that were actually enacted into law, the impact of mass shootings depends on the party in power. The annual number of laws that loosen gun restrictions doubles in the year following a mass shooting in states with Republican-controlled legislatures. We find no significant effect of mass shootings on laws enacted when there is a Democrat-controlled legislature, nor do we find a significant effect of mass shootings on the enactment of laws that tighten gun restrictions.

Keywords: gun violence; gun policy; Crime and Corruption; Governance; Policy; United States;

Citation:
Luca, Michael, Deepak Malhotra, and Christopher Poliquin. "The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy." Art. 104083. Journal of Public Economics 181 (January 2020). View Details

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Article | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | November 26, 2019

Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good

Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene and Max Bazerman

The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was originally applied by philosophers and economists to foundational questions concerning the overall organization of society. Here, we apply veil-of-ignorance reasoning in a more focused way to specific moral dilemmas, all of which involve a tension between the greater good and competing moral concerns. Across seven experiments (n = 6,261), four preregistered, we find that veil-of-ignorance reasoning favors the greater good. Participants first engaged in veil-of-ignorance reasoning about a specific dilemma, asking themselves what they would want if they did not know who among those affected they would be. Participants then responded to a more conventional version of the same dilemma with a moral judgment, a policy preference, or an economic choice. Participants who first engaged in veil-of-ignorance reasoning subsequently made more utilitarian choices in response to a classic philosophical dilemma, a medical dilemma, a real donation decision between a more vs. less effective charity, and a policy decision concerning the social dilemma of autonomous vehicles. These effects depend on the impartial thinking induced by veil-of-ignorance reasoning and cannot be explained by anchoring, probabilistic reasoning, or generic perspective taking. These studies indicate that veil-of-ignorance reasoning may be a useful tool for decision-makers who wish to make more impartial and/or socially beneficial choices.

Keywords: Policy Making; procedural justice; Ethics; Decision Making; Policy; Fairness;

Citation:
Huang, Karen, Joshua D. Greene, and Max Bazerman. "Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116, no. 48 (November 26, 2019). View Details

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Article | Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy | 2019

Pay-for-Monopoly?: An Assessment of Reverse Payment Deals by Pharmaceutical Companies

Sana Rafiq and Max Bazerman

Citation:
Rafiq, Sana, and Max Bazerman. "Pay-for-Monopoly? An Assessment of Reverse Payment Deals by Pharmaceutical Companies." Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy 3, no. 1 (2019): 37–43. View Details

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Economics Wins, Psychology Loses, and Society Pays

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