Zero-sum environments make deceit and distrust rationally advantageous

Evidence

People in these societies therefore fail to cooperate, in part because it would do no good in many contexts and in part because they naturally focus on the competitive, zero-sum aspects of their lives. If there is no point in cooperation, there may even be advantage in deceit, secrecy, and cheating, as there typically is in a zero-sum conflict. Of course, if everyone outside my family is likely to cheat me, I have good reason not to trust them. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 473

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the prisoner’s-dilemma logic from the Milgrom law-merchant material in the reader’s library — one-shot games lock in cheating equilibria. — connects to: Cognitive bias plus curated information feeds industrial post-truth vulnerability — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 122