Influenced by self-interest, humans less concerned about inequity to others

Influenced by self-interest, humans less concerned about inequity to others

"This could imply that humans are less concerned than previously believed about the inequity of others, researchers said. Their findings are published in the journal Brain Connectivity. These findings suggest humans' sense of unfairness is affected by their self-interest, indicating the interest humans show in others' outcomes is a recently evolved propensity...

... contrary to expectations, humans do not show any sensitivity when they are overcompensated. They conclude that humans are more interested in their own outcomes than those of others.

A true sense of fairness means that I get upset if I get paid more than you because I don't think that's fair," Brosnan said. "We thought that people would protest quite a bit in the fixed decision game because it's a cost-free way to say, 'This isn't fair.' But that's not what we saw at all. People protested higher offers at roughly the same rate that they refused offers where they got more, indicating that this lack of refusal in advantaged situations may not be because of the cost of refusing. It may just be because people don't care as much as we thought they did if they're getting more than someone else."

The researchers also used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the underlying brain mechanisms from 18 participants, who played three two-person economic exchange games that involved inequity in their favor and not in their favor. Overcompensated offers triggered a different brain circuit than undercompensated offers and indicate that people may be responding to overcompensation as if it were a reward. This could explain the lack of refusals in this unfair situation, researchers said...