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Egalitarian motives in humans
Christopher T Dawes1, James H Fowler, Tim Johnson
1Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA.
Nature
|April 13, 2007
Summary
People incur personal costs to alter others' incomes, driven by egalitarian motives rather than solely cooperation. This behavior is influenced by inequality and emotions towards earners, impacting income redistribution.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral economics
- Social psychology
- Experimental game theory
Background:
- Individuals often incur costs to influence others' outcomes, promoting cooperation.
- The motivations behind costly income alteration (punishment/reward) are ambiguous, conflating cooperation with equality.
- Existing research cannot distinguish between egalitarian motives and those promoting cooperation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To isolate and investigate the role of egalitarian motives in costly income alteration.
- To determine if individuals alter incomes for reasons beyond reinforcing cooperative behavior.
- To examine the influence of economic inequality on egalitarian-driven income redistribution.
Main Methods:
- Development of a novel experimental game designed to specifically measure egalitarian motives.
- Participants engaged in costly "taking" (reducing) and "giving" (augmenting) of others' incomes.
- Analysis of income alterations in relation to varying levels of economic inequality and expressed emotions.
Main Results:
- Subjects voluntarily incurred personal costs to reduce and augment others' incomes, irrespective of cooperative behavior.
- The frequency and magnitude of income alterations were significantly correlated with the degree of economic inequality.
- Increased inequality intensified negative emotions towards high earners, leading to greater redistribution efforts.
Conclusions:
- Egalitarian motives demonstrably drive costly income-altering behaviors, independent of cooperative incentives.
- These egalitarian motivations may be a crucial factor in the evolution of human strong reciprocity and cooperation.
- Understanding the impact of inequality on social preferences is key to explaining cooperative behaviors.
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