What Monkeys Can Teach Us About Fairness [NYTimes.com]

Samantha Sangenito 6/5/174:00 AM

Monkeys were taught in an experiment to hand over pebbles in exchange for cucumber slices. They were happy with this deal.

Then the researcher randomly offered one monkey — in sight of a second — an even better deal: a grape for a pebble. Monkeys love grapes, so this fellow was thrilled.

The researcher then returned to the second monkey, but presented just a cucumber for the pebble. Now, this offer was insulting. In some cases the monkey would throw the cucumber back at the primatologist in disgust.

In other words, the monkeys cared deeply about fairness. What mattered to them was not just what they received but also what others got.

[For more of this story, written by Nicholas Kristof, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...t-fairness.html?_r=0]

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