It's like a button that takes $5 from the person behind you. Of course you're incentivized to press it. Doubly so if your victim has the option as well (except

It's like a button that takes $5 from the person behind you. Of course you're incentivized to press it. Doubly so if your victim has the option as well (except for the poor schlubs in the last row). Maybe we should all just press it as soon as we can. Or maybe nobody should. There isn't a right answer. The real question is why the airlines have even set up this crazy little psychology experiment. It's probably because many years ago somebody concluded that the value of making the passenger feel like they have the tiniest shred of agency is greater than the cost of unnecessary conflict between passengers. I sure do look forward to pressing that damn button though and I've never gotten in a fight on a plane, so maybe they were right.