Symmetry and the Illusion of Control

Abstract

The existence of cooperation in the face of temptation to free ride requires explanation. We discuss two psychological phenomena, “symmetry” and “the illusion of control,” which we believe underlie the “what if everyone acted that way” type of reasoning used in some types of cooperation. We provide a simple model of how these lead to cooperation. We also show how some bizarre causal beliefs, such as effect preceding cause, can follow from these phenomena. We look at some existing evidence for these phenomena and report on our studies which support the model.

Authors

This paper was written by Jeffrey Goldberg, Lívia Markóczy and Larry Zahn. We've had many useful conversations with others who have commented on earlier – often much earlier – drafts.

What is available here

sjdm-poster.pdf Poster presented at the SJDM conference, 2001.
[Last modified: Tuesday, 13-Nov-2001 01:12:42 EST; 169K]
symmetry.pdf: Draft of the paper.
[Last modified: Saturday, 07-Feb-2004 18:12:32 EST; 326K]

Bibliographic information

@Article{GoldbergMarkoczyZahn04:RS,
  Author =   {Jeffrey Goldberg and L\'{\i}via Mark\'oczy and Larry Zahn},
  Title =    {Symmetry and the Illusion of Control as Bases for
              Cooperative Behavior},
  Year =     {2004},
  Journal = {Rationality \& Society},
  Volume = 16,
  note = {(forthcoming)},
  url = {http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/papers/symmetry/}
}

This paper has circulated under other titles including, “Time travel, mind-control and other everyday phenomena required for cooperation”.

Symmetry and the Illusion of Control

Abstract

Authors

What is available here

Bibliographic information

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