Department of Anthropology, University College London, 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
Proc Biol Sci. 2013 Jan 7;280(1750):20122028. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2028. Epub 2012 Nov 7.
Conceptions of fairness vary across the world. Identifying the drivers of this variation is key to understanding the selection pressures and mechanisms that lead to the evolution of fairness in humans. Individuals' varying fairness preferences are widely assumed to represent cultural norms. However, this assumption has not previously been tested. Fairness norms are defined as culturally transmitted equilibria at which bargainers have coordinated expectations from each other. Hence, if fairness norms exist at the level of the ethno-linguistic group, we should observe two patterns. First, cultural conformism should maintain behavioural homogeneity within an ethno-linguistic group. Second, bargainers' expectations should be coordinated such that proposals and responses to proposals should covary. Here we show that neither of these patterns is observed across 21 populations of the same ethno-linguistic group, the Pahari Korwa of central India. Our findings suggest that what constitutes a fair division of resources can vary on smaller scales than that of the ethno-linguistic group. Individuals' local environments may play a central role in determining conceptions of fairness.
公平观念在世界各地存在差异。确定这种差异的驱动因素是理解导致人类公平进化的选择压力和机制的关键。人们对公平的不同偏好被广泛认为代表了文化规范。然而，这一假设之前尚未得到验证。公平规范被定义为讨价还价者之间相互协调预期的文化传播均衡。因此，如果公平规范存在于民族语言群体的层面上，我们应该观察到两种模式。首先，文化遵从性应该在民族语言群体内部保持行为上的同质性。其次，讨价还价者的预期应该是协调的，以便提议和对提议的回应应该相互关联。在这里，我们表明，在印度中部的 21 个同种民族语言群体的人群中，都没有观察到这两种模式。我们的研究结果表明，资源的公平分配可以在比民族语言群体更小的范围内变化。个人的局部环境可能在决定公平观念方面起着核心作用。
