[lbo-talk] How come nobody talks about the New socialist senator

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Nov 8 21:16:49 PST 2006


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



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