Summary of Thomas C. Schelling's Micromotives and Macrobehavior

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 We can’t control where people sit in a auditorium, but we can control how they choose their seats. We can use this information to figure out what people were doing when they chose their seats.

#2 The seating arrangement in the auditorium was a simple example of how people can be influenced by each other's behavior. If we know that people entering an auditorium have a sociable desire to sit near someone but always leave one empty seat between them, we can predict the pattern that will appear when the entire audience has arrived.

#3 The system of interaction between individuals and their environment is what determines whether a simple summation or extrapolation can be made between individuals and their aggregates. Sometimes the results are surprising, and sometimes they are not easily guessed.

#4 There are several hypotheses as to why people sit where they do. The most minimal is that nobody cares where they sit, as long as they aren’t in the very front. People sit toward the rear as most of the audience arrives, and then climb over seated people to occupy empty seats in the crowded section.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822513594

IRB Media

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Insights on Thomas C. Schelling's Micromotives and Macrobehavior

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

We can’t control where people sit in a auditorium, but we can control how they choose their seats. We can use this information to figure out what people were doing when they chose their seats.

#2

The seating arrangement in the auditorium was a simple example of how people can be influenced by each other's behavior. If we know that people entering an auditorium have a sociable desire to sit near someone but always leave one empty seat between them, we can predict the pattern that will appear when the entire audience has arrived.

#3

The system of interaction between individuals and their environment is what determines whether a simple summation or extrapolation can be made between individuals and their aggregates. Sometimes the results are surprising, and sometimes they are not easily guessed.

#4

There are several hypotheses as to why people sit where they do. The most minimal is that nobody cares where they sit, as long as they aren’t in the very front. People sit toward the rear as most of the audience arrives, and then climb over seated people to occupy empty seats in the crowded section.

#5

When we analyze how people behave, we often attribute motives to their behavior. But with people, we believe they are making conscious decisions or adaptations to pursue goals, immediate or remote, within the limits of their information and comprehension of how to navigate through their environment.

#6

The evaluation of outcomes that serve the purpose is difficult, because the entire aggregate outcome is what has to be evaluated, not just how each person does within the constraints of his own environment.

#7

The economy is a good example of how the social sciences are related to the kind of analysis I have been describing. In economics, the individuals are people, families, owners of farms and businesses, taxi drivers, managers of banks and insurance companies, doctors and school teachers, and soldiers.

#8

The world of the individual ant and the ant colony is full of patterns and regularities, but no individual ant knows whether there are too many or too few ants exploring for food or rebuilding after a thunderstorm.

#9

The free market may not do much, or anything, to distribute opportunities and resources