In all legal systems, possession and property are inextricably linked. Game theory captures this relationship in the Hawk–Dove game: players competing for an asset are better off when the possessor plays Hawk and the intruder plays Dove (the bourgeois strategy). In our experiment, we vary the source of uncorrelated asymmetry among players. We show that i) the highest coordination emerges when the assymetry is based on meritorious possession; ii) possession induces only bourgeois coordination (never antibourgeois) and iii) without merit or possession, coordination on a Hobbesian equilibrium emerges, generating very inequitable outcomes. Possession leads to property, and property curbs inequality.