Report: fairness not a doctrine, built into brain

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Fairness is more than a doctrine, it's an emotion that's built into the human brain, a new study suggests.

The study asked the question: Is it better to give food to some hungry children while others go hungry? Or is it better that every child get a share, albeit a smaller one?

"People prefer equity, when all things are equal, to efficiency," said study lead researcher Ming Hsu, a fellow at the University of Illinois Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. "In terms of the brain, we find areas of the insular cortex are activated when people were choosing the equitable allocation of food. Given the involvement of the insular cortex in emotions and fairness judgments, we conclude that emotions are underlying equity judgments."

But, not everyone is sensitive to equity, Hsu noted. "Some people care less about equity, and that's associated with a lower sensitivity in their insula," he said. "When these people are confronted with inequitable situations, their insula is activated less."

For the study, the volunteers were hypothetically asked to distribute food to children in an orphanage in Uganda. The children would be given the cash equivalent of 24 meals, a "gift" from the research team to the orphanage.

But, a number of meals would have to be cut for some of the children. So, the volunteers were given two options to deal with the problem.

In one option, 15 meals could be taken from one child, or 13 from another child, or five from yet another child, for instance. Choosing this option, the total number of meals lost would be less, but one child would suffer from all cuts. Efficiency would be maintained at the expense of equity.

The second option reduced efficiency, but promoted equity. In this option, all the children would be fed, but they'd share fewer meals.

The researchers found that the study participants overwhelmingly chose the second option. This finding echoed other studies that showed that most people are intolerant of inequity, Hsu said.

(Agencies)