It's not fair! - Unit 3

C2 Proficiency · Multiple Matching · Based on C2 Proficiency exam text

You are going to read an extract from an article about fairness in animals and humans. For questions 1–10, choose from the sections (A-D). The sections may be chosen more than once.

How often have you seen rich people take to the streets, shouting that they're earning too much? Protesters are typically blue-collar workers, wailing that the minimum wage has to go up, or that their jobs shouldn't go overseas. Concern about fairness is always asymmetrical, stronger in the poor than the rich. And the underlying emotions aren't as simple as the ideal itself. Children become thoroughly distraught at the slightest discrepancy in, say, the size of a slice of pizza compared to their sibling's. Their cry 'That's not fair!' never transcends their own self-interest. We're all for fair play so long as it helps us.

There's an old story about this, in which the owner of a vineyard rounds up labourers at different times of the day. Early in the morning he went out to find workers, offering each 1 denarius. But he offered the same amount to those hired later in the day. The workers hired early in the morning expected to get more since they'd worked through the heat of the day, yet the owner didn't feel he owed them any more than he'd promised. There's a similarity here with the way we reject unequal shares of money.

Where do such reactions come from? They probably evolved in the service of cooperation. Caring about what others get may seem odd and irrational, but in the long run it keeps you from being taken advantage of. Had we merely accepted emotions, such as resentment or envy, unfair dealings might have gone unnoticed. Now we are of interest to philosophers, anthropologists and economists, who almost choked on the monkey fairness experiment. As it happened, our study came out at a time that there was a public outcry about the million dollar pay packages that are occasionally awarded on Wall Street and elsewhere. Commentators couldn't resist contrasting human society with our ancestors, suggesting that we could learn a thing or two from them.

Monkeys have not reached the point at which their sense of fairness stretches beyond egocentric concerns. For example, the one who gets the grape never levels the outcome by giving it to the other. In cooperative human societies, such as those where men hunt large game, anthropologists have noted a great sensitivity to equal distribution. Some tribes forbid successful hunters from carrying their own kill to prevent them from favoring their own family. These cultures are keenly aware of the threat that inequity poses to the social fabric of the group.

Apes, as opposed to monkeys, may have an inkling of this connection. High-ranking male chimpanzees, for example, sometimes break up fights over food without taking any for themselves. During experiments, one female received large amounts of milk and apples. She noticed her friends watching her from a distance. After a while, she refused all rewards. Looking at the experimenter, she kept gesturing to the other apes until they were given a share of the goodies. She was doing the smart thing. Apes think ahead, and if she had her fill right in front of the rest, there might be repercussions when she rejoined them later.

That's not fair!

Do animals share our sense of unfairness over displays of greed?

a comparison between different types of primates in terms of their awareness of fairness

the idea that our concern for what others receive developed for a practical purpose

a suggestion that humans from different backgrounds have different attitudes to what is fair

an example of how one species shows awareness of the consequences of their actions for the group

the reason why researchers were particularly interested in carrying out this study

a reference to societies which have developed systems to ensure things are shared out equally

an experiment where an animal showed it was prepared to put the interests of the group before its own

the view that we only support fairness when we stand to gain from it

a description of the way children tend to respond to unequal treatment

a traditional tale which illustrates how people react when they feel hard done by

Which section

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