[p2p-research] Frans de Waal: Fair is fair

[Ryan]

  Sent to you by Ryan via Google Reader: Frans de Waal: Fair is fair via
3quarksdaily by Abbas Raza on 7/23/10

This post is the first in a four-part series of essays for Scientific
American by primatologist Frans de Waal on human nature, based on his
ongoing research. De Waal and other researchers appear in a series of
Department of Expansion videos focusing on the same topic. [See below
for parts 2, 3, and 4.]

Frans de Waal in Scientific American:

Fairness is viewed differently by the haves and have-nots. The
underlying emotions and desires aren't half as lofty as the ideal
itself. The most recognizable emotion is resentment. Look at how
children react to the slightest discrepancy in the size of their pizza
slice compared with their siblings'. They shout, "That's not fair!" but
never in a way transcending their own desires.

An experiment with capuchin monkeys by Sarah Brosnan, of Georgia State
University's CEBUS Lab, and myself illuminated this emotional basis.
These monkeys will happily perform a task for cucumber slices until
they see others getting grapes, which taste so much better. They become
agitated, throw down their measly cucumbers, and go on strike. A
perfectly fine vegetable has become unpalatable! Not all economists,
philosophers and anthropologists were happy with our interpretation,
because they traditionally consider the "sense of fairness" uniquely
human. But by now there are many other experiments, even on dogs, that
confirm our initial findings.

More here. And here are parts two, three, and four.



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