Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–2Cite as

Fairness in Primates

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

  • 50 Accesses

Synonyms

Fairness in nonhuman primates; Inequity aversion in primates

Definition

Fairness is the preference for equality and resistance to an inequitable distribution of resources. This entry covers research on fairness in primates.

Introduction

It has been proposed that inequity aversion (or a sense of fairness) may have coevolved with cooperation (Brosnan and de Waal 2003). During cooperative efforts, it would be crucial from an adaptive standpoint, for individuals to be able to compare and measure their labors and rewards with the other members of their cooperative groups and react negatively to an unequal division of labor and rewards. As human beings are not the only species that display cooperation, it seems likely that those nonhuman animals that exhibit cooperation may also exhibit inequity aversion.

Evidence for Fairness

Brosnan and de Waal (2003) demonstrated that capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella), a cooperative species of primate, reacted negatively toward unequal...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Brosnan, S. F., & De Waal, F. B. M. (2003). Monkeys reject unequal pay. Nature, 425(6955), 297–299. doi:10.1038/nature01963.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brosnan, S. F., Talbot, C., Ahlgren, M., Lambeth, S. P., & Schapiro, S. J. (2010). Mechanisms underlying responses to inequitable outcomes in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. Animal Behaviour, 79(6), 1229–1237. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.02.019.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • van Wolkenten, M., Brosnan, S. F., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2007). Inequity responses of monkeys modified by effort. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(47), 18854–18859. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707182104.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Molly McGuire

Authors
  1. Molly McGuire
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Molly McGuire .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

McGuire, M. (2016). Fairness in Primates. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_489-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_489-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation