Have you heard of the pizza conundrum?
No, this isn’t about whether pineapple belongs on pizza (definitely not) or what size pizza is the best buy (get the bigger one).
The pizza conundrum was inspired by a conversation with a friend at one of our recent get togethers. He posed the following scenario to me…
You’ve got your entire team at a big retreat. You serve pizza for lunch. One person takes three pieces while another person takes only one piece. They have the exact same reason for how many pieces they took. What is the reason for their behavior?
The traditional answer to this scenario is a shared belief in scarcity. Both people worry there may not be enough pizza to go around. One person takes a single piece to increase the likelihood that everyone gets at least one slice of pizza while the other person takes three pieces because they are worried there won’t be pieces left to get more later if they are hungry.
The different reactions to the scenario tell us something about each person’s personality. The single-piece person is likely team oriented and selfless while the three-piece person may be individualistic and risk averse. You could safely assume they would treat information the same way they treated the pizza (share vs hoard).
On one of my hikes, an alternative theory occurred to me – by taking a more optimistic view of the scenario. Perhaps the two people didn’t have a shared belief in scarcity but rather abundance. Here’s what happens under that assumption…
The single-piece person is confident that someone will replenish the pizza by the time he/she wants more so only takes one piece to start. Similarly, the three-piece person is not worried about others getting enough pizza because she/he assumes there is plenty to go around.
Both the scarcity and abundance perspectives are reasonable interpretations and evoke the glass half empty/full debate. Therefore, the insight might really be into how people respond to the question posed in the scenario, rather than the pizza-eating participants themselves. Perhaps those who assume a scarcity scenario are skeptical of the motivations of their colleagues while people who answer from an abundance perspective assume the best intentions.
The pizza conundrum pits optimists vs. pessimists.
I grew up in a family of 15 children. Nobody would even think of taking more than one piece of pizza. And not because my parents would say anything, the other siblings would chastise the hoarder. If there was one apple left, nobody would touch it. If there was 6 oz of milk, we would opt for eggs and toast rather than cereal. My mother could rely on the fact that the one ice cream bar would be there when she rewarded someone for doing an unsolicited task. It definitely was a scarcity awareness.
Interestingly enough, my son has 8 children. In between meals you can always see some one person eating an apple, or a tangerine, or a cheese stick. They do not suffer from scarcity but there is no waste. They don’t fill their pockets with snacks because they’re sure something else will be there if they’re looking for a snack later.
I used to think my brothers and I were always skinny as a rail because we ate sparingly. Now I watch my grandkids eat ad libitum and marvel at how skinny they are. Of course, their mother does not provide junk; it’s always fresh fruit, cheese sticks, and yogurt.