Table Of ContentMeng Li · David P. Tracer Editors
Interdisciplinary
Perspectives on
Fairness, Equity,
and Justice
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Fairness, Equity,
and Justice
Meng Li • David P. Tracer
Editors
Interdisciplinary Perspectives
on Fairness, Equity,
and Justice
Editors
Meng Li David P. Tracer
Department of Health and Behavioral Departments of Health and Behavioral
Sciences Sciences and Anthropology
University of Colorado Denver University of Colorado Denver
Denver, CO, USA Denver, CO, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-58992-3 ISBN 978-3-319-58993-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58993-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017952058
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
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Contents
1 An Introduction and Guide to the Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
David P. Tracer and Meng Li
2 The Neural Basis of Fairness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Peter Vavra, Jeroen van Baar, and Alan Sanfey
3 The Evolution of Moral Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Mark Sheskin
4 Public Preferences About Fairness and the
Ethics of Allocating Scarce Medical Interventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Govind Persad
5 Equality by Principle, Efficiency by Practice:
How Policy Description Affects Allocation Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Meng Li and Jeff DeWitt
6 R esource Allocation Decisions: When Do We
Sacrifice Efficiency in the Name of Equity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Tom Gordon-Hecker, Shoham Choshen-Hillel,
Shaul Shalvi, and Yoella Bereby-Meyer
7 T he Logic and Location of Strong Reciprocity:
Anthropological and Philosophical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Jordan Kiper and Richard Sosis
8 F airness in Cultural Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Carolyn K. Lesorogol
9 J ustice Preferences: An Experimental Economic
Study in Papua New Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
David P. Tracer
v
vi Contents
10 Framing Charitable Solicitations in a Behavioral
Experiment: Cues Derived from Evolutionary Theory
of Cooperation and Economic Anthropology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Shane A. Scaggs, Karen S. Fulk, Delaney Glass, and John P. Ziker
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Contributors
Yoella Bereby-Meyer Psychology Department, Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev Beer Sheva, Israel
Shoham Choshen-Hillel Jerusalem School of Business Administration and the
Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, Israel
Jeff DeWitt Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ,
USA
Karen S. Fulk Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID,
USA
Delaney Glass Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID,
USA
Tom Gordon-Hecker Psychology Department, Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev Beer Sheva, Israel
Jordan Kiper Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs,
CT, USA
Carolyn K. Lesorogol George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington
University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO,
USA
Meng Li Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado
Denver, Denver, CO, USA
Govind Persad Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD, USA
Department of Health Policy and Management, Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
vii
viii Contributors
Alan Sanfey Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behavior, Radboud
University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Shane A. Scaggs Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University, Corvallis,
OR, USA
Shaul Shalvi Department of Economics, Center for Research in Experimental
Economics and Political Decision Making (CREED), University of Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Mark Sheskin Cognitive Science Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
Richard Sosis Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs,
CT, USA
David P. Tracer Departments of Health & Behavioral Sciences and Anthropology,
University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA
Jeroen van Baar Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behavior, Radboud
University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Peter Vavra Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behavior, Radboud
University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
John P. Ziker Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID,
USA
Chapter 1
An Introduction and Guide to the Volume
David P. Tracer and Meng Li
The notion that humans have a taste for fairness, equity, and justice is both pro-
foundly empirically satisfying, and troublesome, theoretically. It is comforting to
know that “from cooperative hunting to contributing to charitable causes to helping
stranded motorists, humans in all societies, industrialized and small-scale alike, fre-
quently engage in acts that benefit other unrelated individuals, often at a non-trivial
cost to themselves” (Tracer, this volume); in other words, that humans are intensely
prosocial creatures. But this same fact is at once problematic for theories of human
motivation and behavior. Most theories of human behavior in the social sciences
rely upon the premise that we are fundamentally self-regarding maximizers of per-
sonal gain. This is alternatively known as the “selfishness axiom” or the Homo
economicus model of human behavior (Henrich et al., 2004). Are humans prosocial
creatures or selfish maximizers? In this volume, we examine the concepts of fair-
ness, equity, and justice from an interdisciplinary perspective. Before we proceed to
the various perspectives from disciplines as diverse as neuroscience, psychology,
bioethics, and anthropology, this chapter offers a brief introduction to and definition
of the terms, concepts, and theories in which much of the work reported in this vol-
ume is grounded. It also provides a brief justification for approaching the concepts
of fairness, equity, and justice from an interdisciplinary perspective, as well as a
guide to the volume to illustrate how its individual chapters fit together to provide
some answers to the enigma of human prosociality and our taste for fairness, equity,
and justice.
D.P. Tracer (*)
Departments of Health & Behavioral Sciences and Anthropology,
University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
M. Li
Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences, University of Colorado Denver,
Denver, CO, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 1
M. Li, D.P. Tracer (eds.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Fairness,
Equity, and Justice, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58993-0_1
2 D.P. Tracer and M. Li
Theoretical Considerations: Homo economicus and the Axiom
of Selfishness
In their now classic book on behavioral ecology, Krebs and Davies (1981) con-
cerned themselves with the question of why certain behaviors come to predominate
among species occupying particular ecological contexts. They proposed that ques-
tions about behavior can best be answered using a “functionalist” orientation, that
is, by understanding “how a particular behavior pattern contributes to an animal’s
chances of survival and its reproductive success” (1981:22). Like advantageous
morphology or physiology, behaviors that promote survival and reproduction tend
to be passed on at higher frequencies (either genetically or through analogous teach-
ing or emulation practices) and will come to predominate until such time as the
environment changes in ways that favor some other behavioral propensity. Krebs
and Davies conclude by noting that the quest for survival and reproductive success
necessarily means that “individuals are expected to behave in their own selfish inter-
ests” (1981:22). Similarly, in his now classic book on evolution and behavior, The
Selfish Gene, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins noted that:
we must expect that when we go and look at the behavior of baboons, humans, and all other
living creatures, we shall find it to be selfish. If we find that our expectation is wrong, if we
observe that human behavior is truly altruistic, then we shall be faced with something puz-
zling, something that needs explaining (1976).
Consequently, for almost the past half-century, the “selfishness axiom” has pre-
vailed within the natural and life sciences in order to explain the evolution and
maintenance of behaviors.
A theoretical orientation very similar to that of evolutionary biology has also
been prevalent for a very long time in the social and behavioral sciences. For exam-
ple, perhaps the best-known quote by any economist is that made by Adam Smith in
his Wealth of Nations:
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our
dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their human-
ity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advan-
tages (1776).
For Smith, services are provided not for the benefit of individual others or one’s
own group but in satisfaction of the service providers’ own needs and necessities.
This view has come to prevail in economics and is sometimes known as the “Homo
economicus” model: “theoretical economists postulated a being called Homo eco-
nomicus—a rational individual relentlessly bent on maximizing a purely selfish
reward” (Fehr, Sigmund, & Nowak, 2002). It is worth noting that the “selfishness
axiom” became pervasive in some schools of anthropology and psychology as well,
most notably, in the evolutionary subareas of these disciplines (Henrich et al., 2005).
As useful as the selfishness axiom and Homo economicus model of human
behavior are for theorizing about the roots of human strategic interaction, empirical
evidence from multiple sources has cast doubt on whether humans truly behave in
ways predicted by these paradigms.
