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Abstract

Policy research is a multi-disciplinary enterprise attempting to explain the success or failure of political systems in guiding the evolution, and solving the problems, of their societies. Of the transformation rules suggested by experimental work in social psychology, three are of particular importance for the empirical analysis of political interactions; The maximization of one's "own gain", the maximization of one's "relative gain" compared to another party, and the maximization of "joint gains" of all parties. The first of these rules leaves the "given matrix" unchanged. The rule provides a precise operational definition of the attitudes and behavioral tendencies associated with the "bargaining" style of decision-making. The second rule suggests a competitive transformation of the "given matrix" with an emphasis on winning or losing in comparison to others. The third rule implies a "cooperative" or "solidaristic" transformation of the "given matrix", so that "an actor seeks those alternatives that afford both himself and the other the highest joint outcome".