Wonderfest: The Sense of Fairness in Chimps and Children - Rescheduled

What underlies our sense of fairness? Chimpanzees react negatively to allocations of resources in which they receive less than others. Human children (from around 8 years onward) react similarly, and they react negatively to allocations in which they receive more than others. New evidence suggests that aversion to unequal distribution of resources has a somewhat different origin in chimps and children. Such aversion in chimpanzees seems to stem from social expectations rather than fairness concerns. Human children's sense of fairness is essentially a judgment about the social meaning of the distributive act. Children respond to unequal distributions not based on material dissatisfaction, but on interpersonal dissatisfaction: children see each other as equally deserving of respect.

Speaker: Jan Engelmann, UC Berkeley

This event has been rescheduled for February 20, 2024