Your Reclining Airplane Seat Is Against. the Circle Behind You: Who Owns the Broadcasting Rights?
It’s annoying as hell when you lower your table and tray, try to work or eat, and the person in front of you leans back, narrowing the already tiny gap between your knees and the back of your seat. To get revenge, you recline your own seat – that’s your right, after all – and annoy the person behind you. It’s a frustrating domino effect as travelers try to reclaim their place. So who originally owns this space ?
Two law professors conducted an online survey to explore behavioral economics concepts in relation to the reclining seat debate. They asked people to imagine they were on a six-hour flight from New York to Los Angeles, and that the airline had introduced a new policy allowing travelers to pay people in front of them to keep them from reclining their seats.
One group was asked to indicate the smallest amount they were willing to accept to opt out of this feature. Another group was asked to disclose the maximum amount they are willing to pay in order to prevent the person from lying on the floor in front of them.
The reclining people wanted an average of $ 41 to relinquish their reclining right, while the reclining people who theoretically sat behind them were willing to pay an average of only $ 18.
This suggests that the space belongs to the chair, as they seem to value it more. The Economist explains:
According to the theory of Ronald Coase, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1991, the space between the seats in airplanes is a scarce resource. Therefore, it does not matter who the original owner is (provided there are no obstacles to the conclusion of the transaction). The market will go out: the one who appreciates space more will buy it from another. (In this case, he usually returns to the chair.)
But then in another experiment, they changed the default. Instead of bargaining about something, told people that they would have to negotiate to get the right to lean back. They found that, in this case, reclining chairs were only willing to pay $ 12 to recline, while reclining seats were unwilling to sell their legroom for less than the $ 39 average. So what gives? In this case, it might seem like the ownership belongs to the reclining person, who seems to value legroom more.
Professionals point to the work of behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman to explain this discrepancy:
People usually don’t like to lose what they have. When a resource is provided to them by default – even something as trivial as a pen – people tend to be reluctant to part with it. As a consequence, the smallest amount of money they are willing to accept in order to give it up often far exceeds the amount they would be willing to pay to buy the same item.
In other words, if comfort is presented for granted, as is the case with airplane seating, people are reluctant to give it up. Behavioral economics is hard to deal with, however, and if you go through all of their research , you will see that the answer becomes even more complex.
However, the fact that this feature exists by default suggests that the person whose seat reclines has control over this area. (If you don’t like this, sit in the non-reclining seat if possible.)
On the other hand, if you are a chair lover, at least have some manners. Don’t recline the seat while serving food, don’t recline it, or if you really want to be polite, just ask. Former flight attendant Beth Blair at BBC Autos recommends:
… the most successful ‘seat recline’ I have observed was when a passenger wishing to recline back turns around and addresses their intended movement with the passenger seated behind them and simply asks, “Can I recline my seat?” “Yes” is usually given with a smile, and very rarely the answer is “no” – sometimes “not yet.” I heard passengers say, “I work on my computer and I really need a seat. Would you mind waiting 15 minutes for me to finish?
This seems like a silly problem for first-world countries, and it is, but given that airlines are seriously reducing legroom to reduce the number of passengers on flights , this is also a legitimate problem. In fact, it would not be very surprising if airlines were to start charging you with the drop off.