A recent study by a team of researchers at the Universities of Leicester and Exeter reported that the assumption that people always act in their own best interests when making decisions is not always true. They present evidence which suggests that people will often make decisions that benefit the team, even at the expense of their own self interests. These two views, referred to as classical game theory and team reasoning theory, respectively, make very different predictions about how decisions makers will behave when confronted with choices that require deciding between pursuing personal interests or sacrificing individual gains for the welfare of the collective. Their findings speak to why people may not always serve their own best interests and demonstrate that team reasoning theory can reliably predict decision making behavior more powerfully in some games and situations than classical decision theory. Possible applications for this research may include constructing work place environments that foster cooperative decision making strategies.
