For years, scientists have debated where humanity's sense of fairness came from. Some proposed it was a glitch in the brain's wiring that causes people to be kind and fair to strangers, while others said it was a remnant of Stone Age thinking-
-that deep in our brains we see everyone we meet as part of our tiny family, and can’t imagine encountering someone who won’t ever be seen again [Wired].
But now, in a new study published in Science, scientists studying groups of people from different societies have suggested that our sense of fairness may depend on the type of society we live in. The researchers found evidence that the more complex the society, the more developed those people's sense of fairness.
You can’t get the effects we’re seeing from genes,” said Joe Henrich, a University of British Columbia evolutionary psychologist and co-author of the study.” These are things ...
