Zero Sum Bias: Escaping the “If They Win, I Lose” Trap

We talk about collaboration, but our brains often treat work like a win-lose game. In this episode, I break down Zero-Sum Bias, the belief that someone else’s win automatically means your loss, where it comes from, how it quietly shapes team dynamics, and what you can do to build more win-win outcomes at work.

What if your brain has been keeping score at work this whole time? And the game it thinks you’re playing doesn’t actually exist?

We repeat lines like, “If a stakeholder wins, designers lose,” or “If the PM wins, users lose,” so often that they start to feel like facts. In this episode of the Cognition Catalog, we unpack Zero-Sum Bias, the belief that someone else’s gain must come at your expense, and how that thinking quietly turns collaboration into a contest.

I walk through where this bias comes from, starting with early economic and game theory models like zero-sum games, where wins and losses truly do net out to zero, and how that maps onto our evolutionary history of genuine scarcity. Food, safety, and resources really were limited, so one person’s gain often did mean someone else’s loss. The problem is that our brains still carry that wiring into modern workplaces that are full of shared goals, interdependence, and cross-functional teams.

From design vs. product vs. engineering “tensions” to resourcing, prioritization, and recognition, I break down how zero-sum thinking shows up in everyday UX work—and what changes when you stop assuming only one side can win. We’ll talk about practical ways to spot the bias, shift toward non-zero-sum thinking, and design team habits that reward collaboration over quiet competition.

If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “If they win, I lose,” this episode will help you reset the scoreboard and build healthier ways of working together.

Topics:• 02:08 Debunking Zero Sum Thinking• 03:13 Origins and Evolution of Zero Sum Bias• 04:09 Impact of Zero Sum Bias on Teams• 06:18 Strategies to Combat Zero-Sum Bias

To explore more about the Naive Cynicism, don’t miss the full article @ ⁠⁠cognitioncatalog.com⁠⁠

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