Raihani, NJ;
Barclay, P;
(2016)
Exploring the trade-off between quality and fairness in human partner choice.
Royal Society Open Science
, 3
, Article 160510. 10.1098/rsos.160510.
Preview |
Text
Raihani_Exploring the trade-off between quality and fairness in human partner choice.pdf Download (380kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Partner choice is an important force underpinning cooperation in humans and other animals. Nevertheless, the mechanisms individuals use to evaluate and discriminate among partners who vary across different dimensions are poorly understood. Generally, individuals are expected to prefer partners who are both able and willing to invest in cooperation but how do individuals prioritize the ability over willingness to invest when these characteristics are opposed to one another? We used a modified Dictator Game to tackle this question. Choosers evaluated partners varying in quality (proxied by wealth) and fairness, in conditions when wealth was relatively stable or liable to change. When both partners were equally fair (or unfair), choosers typically preferred the richer partner. Nevertheless, when asked to choose between a rich-stingy and a poor-fair partner, choosers prioritized fairness over wealth—with this preference being particularly pronounced when wealth was unstable. The implications of these findings for real-world partner choice are discussed.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Exploring the trade-off between quality and fairness in human partner choice |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.160510 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160510 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright & Usage © 2016 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | partner choice; biological market theory; quality; fairness |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1526453 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
