Zero-sum versus positive-sum: how space design influences social behavior

Design is a social contract.

The secret to social change in Israel is not "raising awareness."

It’s architecture that takes the social being into account.

Architecture that creates a space where polite behavior is the most rewarding.

The supermarket: five shekels and one checkout

During my last visit to the country, I stood in front of a row of carts that required a five-shekel coin. Having just arrived from abroad, I didn’t have a shekel. One man agreed to a deal: I would transfer him five shekels via Bit, and he would give me his cart.

I reached the only functioning checkout. One man was using the checkout shelf as his personal "cart" – he was running back and forth while a massive line pushed in behind him. Tempers flared. "Get out of the country, you and your kind," he spat at me. The woman behind me whispered, "Don’t engage, he’s one of those criminals."

As he pulled out debit card after debit card to scrape together the purchase amount, I realized: this man didn’t have five shekels to spare for a cart.

It’s easy to say "that’s the ugly Israeli" and assume we’re moral snowflakes in a sea of disgust.

(There’s something remarkably Israeli about the very thought that we are somehow superior to our environment.)

But as an anthropologist in Denmark, I suggest we momentarily set aside Israeli narcissism and examine the situation from another angle.

Are the Danes angels? Not at all.

I’ve been here six winters, and let me update you – these are people with Viking blood who know what cruelty is.

The question: how to build space

The difference between Denmark and Israel lies in one question:

How do you create spaces where the most selfish choice of the individual aligns with the common good?

Zero-sum versus positive-sum