Synopses & Reviews
Combining research from the social sciences, hard sciences, and the humanities, this accessible cross-disciplinary book offers fascinating insights into a key component of human nature and society.
Biologist L. Sun examines the innate sense of fairness displayed by human beings in all kinds of societies throughout history. He argues persuasively that it is an emotion and behavior rooted in our DNA, rather than a product of ideology or convention. Citing animal studies that show that even monkeys react negatively to patently unfair treatment, Sun delves into the issue of why this instinct may have evolved with a new biological framework. Specifically, he identifies two selective forces behind the evolution of fairness. One is the need for resolving conflicts of interest in social groups, and the other is a bottom-up drive pushing toward equality in resource sharing in the hierarchies of society.
Turning to the down side of the fairness instinct, the author shows that when it plays too great a role in leveling inequalities, it can have negative repercussions, such as a society where outstanding achievers arouse envy and only mediocrity is condoned. Even worse is the vicious cycle of spite resulting from an injured sense of fairness, which can easily spill over into violence.
Finally, the author considers the role that fairness plays in religion with its promise to ultimately overcome the prejudices and inequality of human society by offering the hope of divine justice.
Synopsis
Combining research from the social sciences, hard sciences, and the humanities, this accessible cross-disciplinary book offers fascinating insights into a key component of human nature and society.
What do the Arab Spring, the Robin Hood legend, Occupy Wall Street, and the American taxpayer reaction to the $182 billion bailout of AIG have in common? All are rooted in a deeply ingrained sense of
fairness.
But where does this universal instinct come from? This is the driving question at the heart of L. Sun's
The Fairness Instinct.
Thinkers from Aristotle to Kant, from Augustine to John Rawls, and religions from Christianity to Confucianism, have offered great insight into the nature and origins of this basic human desire for fairness. Based on the most recent scientific discoveries in behavioral genetics, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, economics, and evolution, Sun argues that the origins of the fairness instinct cannot be found exclusively in the philosophical, social, and political perspectives to which we so often turn; rather, they can be traced to something much deeper in our biological makeup. Taking as his starting point Frans De Waal's seminal study showing that Capuchin monkeys revolt when they are shortchanged by receiving a less valuable reward than their peers receive for the same task, Sun synthesizes a wide range of research to explore the biological roots of the fairness instinct. He shows that fairness is much more than a moral value or ideological construct; fairness is in our DNA.
Combining scientific rigor with accessible and reader-friendly language to relate fascinating stories of animal and human behavior, The Fairness Instinct lays out an evolutionary roadmap for how fairness emerges and thrives under natural selection and how two powerful engines--social living and social hierarchy--have fueled the evolution of this intricate and potent instinct in all of us. Probing into the motives that underlie such phenomena as envy, consumerism, anti-intellectualism, revenge, revolution, terrorism, marriage, democracy, and religion, Sun showcases the power of the fairness instinct to make our history, shape our society, and rule our social lives.
Synopsis
Biologist L. Sun examines the innate sense of fairness displayed by human beings in all kinds of societies throughout history. He argues persuasively that it is an emotion and behavior rooted in our DNA, rather than a product of ideology or convention. Citing animal studies that show that even monkeys react negatively to patently unfair treatment, Sun delves into the issue of why this instinct may have evolved with a new biological framework. Specifically, he identifies two selective forces behind the evolution of fairness. One is the need for resolving conflicts of interest in social groups, and the other is a bottom-up drive pushing toward equality in resource sharing in the hierarchies of society.Turning to the down side of the fairness instinct, the author shows that when it plays too great a role in leveling inequalities, it can have negative repercussions, such as a society where outstanding achievers arouse envy and only mediocrity is condoned. Even worse is the vicious cycle of spite resulting from an injured sense of fairness, which can easily spill over into violence. Finally, the author considers the role that fairness plays in religion with its promise to ultimately overcome the prejudices and inequality of human society by offering the hope of divine justice.
About the Author
L. Sun (Ellensburg, WA) is professor of biology at Central Washington University. Trained at East China Normal University in Shanghai, China in biology and animal ecology, and then at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Syracuse University in zoology and animal behavior, he has coauthored two books: The World of Mammals (in Chinese) and The Beaver—Natural History of a Wetlands Engineer. The latter won Choice magazine’s Outstanding Academic Title award and was a finalist for the John Burroughs Medal for excellence in nature writing. For more information, see http://www.cwu.edu/~lixing/.