Massive wealth gaps might just be a math problem: if you always pick the better of two random options, inequality is basically guaranteed.
March 23, 2026
Original Paper
Power laws and power-of-two-choices
arXiv · 2603.20060
The Takeaway
This research reveals that extreme 'power law' distributions—where a few have everything and the rest have nothing—emerge automatically from the simple act of choosing between a few random alternatives. It suggests that lopsided inequality isn't just a social phenomenon, but a mathematical trap triggered by the nature of choice itself.
From the abstract
This paper analyzes a variation on the well-known "power of two choices" allocation algorithms. Classically, the smallest of $d$ randomly-chosen options is selected. We investigate what happens when the largest of $d$ randomly-chosen options is selected. This process generates a power-law-like distribution: the $i^{th}$-smallest value scales with $i^{d-1}$, where $d$ is the number of randomly-chosen options, with high probability. We give a formula for the expectation and show the distribution i