On Nov 8, 2006, at 10:56 PM, Michael McIntyre wrote:
> I do remember that, quite a few years ago now, during my
> introduction to rational choice theory Jon Elster called our
> attention to a psychology experiment demonstrating that, when
> exposed to a fixed game, only depressed participants were able to
> identify the game as fixed.
It may be fixed for individuals, but collectives have a chance to unfix the game, and they're not going to try to unfix it if they take a strictly rational measure of the balance of forces. An intervention can change the situation, but if you're paralyzed by gloom, you're not going to try.
Doug