Coming to a Consensus During Risky Decision-Making

When two people need to make a risky decision together, they typically meet in the middle—but new Caltech research shows that's only part of the story. According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, people who claim more credit for successes and deflect blame for failures are actually less willing to compromise with their partners. The researchers had pairs play a virtual foraging game where they had to coordinate choices to maximize rewards while avoiding a cartoon predator. They found that even when each person's contribution was crystal clear, people still took credit for wins while pushing blame for losses onto their partner. The researchers say this matters: teams with members who are less biased about assigning responsibility tend to align and succeed together, while those with strong egocentric biases can spiral into conflict. It's a reminder that successful collaboration might depend less on how different people are, and more on how fairly they assign the blame when things go wrong.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton