NY TIMES

Consider an experiment that many researchers have used. Two players, who have never seen each other before, are told to share a sum of money. Player 1 gets to decide how it should be split between the two of them. Player 2 then decides whether or not to accept the offer, with a catch: if they refuse it, then neither player gets to keep any of the money at all.

If fairness didn’t matter, then you would expect Player 2 to accept any deal, even if the split was uneven. After all, it’s free money.

But that’s not what happens. Researchers consistently find that Player 2 will often reject the deal if it feels unfair. Rejecting unfair treatment, even in a lab setting, feels so important that people will actually give up money to do it.

A 2008 study by Golnaz Tabibnia, Ajay B. Satpute, and Matthew D. Lieberman helps explain why. They had subjects play the game while hooked up to fMRI machines, and found that fair offers activate the reward centers of the brain. Fair treatment is actually pleasurable, beyond the material benefits it brings.

The converse is also true. Unfair treatment is upsetting in and of itself, regardless of whether it’s accompanied by material harm or loss. Other research has found, for instance, that lower-income people’s unhappiness in times of economic inequality comes primarily from a sense of unfairness, rather than an absolute lack of material resources. This seems to be partly grounded in a feeling that unfairness is a sign of contempt. That, is, when someone treats you unfairly, that’s a sign that they do not believe you are worthy of respect.

 

Πού εξαφανίστηκε ο homo economicus?