Social Inequity Aversion - Clarifying Inequity Aversion Through Experiment

Clarifying Inequity Aversion Through Experiment

To better understand and breakdown the concept of social inequity aversion would be to use the study done by Sarah Brosnan (as well as with Frans B. M. de Waal), who specializes in social behavior and social cognition. In their experiment, “Monkeys Reject Unequal Pay” five female capuchin monkeys were used and given an unequal distribution of rewards by the human experimenter. The female monkeys alternated in pairs under four different conditions with the experimenter. Of the female monkeys, two received the same reward, one female received a superior reward, one female received a superior reward without exchange (for example without work), and a single female observed a superior reward in the absence of a partner. The females were much less likely to complete a trade with the human experimenter when their corresponding partner received a food item of higher value item (a grape; the lower item was a cucumber), and when that partner received the higher food item with no exchange of work of any kind, the likelihood of not completing a trade intensified. All of these refusals of exchange included both passive and active rejections ranging from refusing to take the awards to throwing the reward, respectively. These negative responses of situation made with the monkeys support the early evolutionary origin of inequity aversion and thus helps (in combination with the definitions of inequity and aversion) give an overall idea of what social inequity aversion is: the tendency to reject or avoid situations in which there is social inequality, unfairness, or injustice.