The Human Mind as
a Barrier to Wiser Environmental Agreements
Max
H. Bazerman, Don A. Moore, and James J. Gillespie
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.
Max H. Bazerman, Currently,
Harvard Business School, Harvard University
Don A. Moore, Department of Organization Behavior,
Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University
James J. Gillespie, Department of Organization
Behavior, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University
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