Deprival-Superreaction Tendency has ghastly effects in labor relations. Most of

the deaths in the labor strife that occurred before World War I came when

employers tried to reduce wages. Nowadays, we see fewer deaths and more

occasions when whole companies disappear, as competition requires either

takeaways from labor—which it will not consent to—or death of the business.

Deprival- Superreaction Tendency causes much of this labor resistance, often in

cases where it would be in labor’s interest to make a different decision.

 

In contexts other than labor relations, takeaways are also difficult to get.

Many tragedies, therefore, occur that would have been avoided had there been

more rationality and less subconscious heed of the imperative from

Deprival-Superreaction Tendency.

 

Deprival-Superreaction Tendency is also a huge contributor to ruin from

compulsion to gamble. First, it causes the gambler to have a passion to get even

once he has suffered loss, and the passion grows with the loss. Second, the most

addictive forms of gambling provide a lot of near misses and each one triggers

Deprival-Superreaction Tendency. Some slot machine creators are vicious in

exploiting this weakness of man. Electronic machines enable these creators to

produce a lot of meaningless bar- bar-lemon results that greatly increase play

by fools who think they have very nearly won large rewards.

 

Deprival-Superreation Tendency often does much damage to man in open-outcry

auctions. The “social proof” that we will next consider tends to convince man