The Human Mind as a Barrier to Wiser Environmental Agreements

Max H. Bazerman, Don A. Moore and James J. Gillespie

IPR working papers from Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University

Abstract: Human ingenuity offers the best hope for tackling a whole range of environmental problems currently threatening global welfare, yet the human mind also creates cognitive barriers to wise environmental agreements. In this paper, we focus on a set of systematic cognitive barriers that are particularly endemic to environmental disputes. The fixed-pie bias grows from the assumption that disputants' interests are perfectly opposed. This mythical fixed pie inhibits the discovery of beneficial trade-offs that integrate parties' interests. We also discuss five other cognitive biases that combine with the fixed-pie assumption to influence the resolution of disputes in the environmental domain: pseudosacredness, egocentrism, overconfidence, optimism, and endowment effects. We discuss the potential role of learning and experience in improving negotiator performance. The paper concludes with prescriptive advice for overcoming these cognitive barriers.

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:nwuipr:98-16

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