The Fairness Behind Veil of Ignorance –Behavior Experiment on Formosan Macaque
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Hwang, Wei-Shiang
Abstract
The veil of ignorance (VOI), behind which people allocate resource prior to learning their social positions, was introduced by John Rawls (1971). In a world of two, a prince and a beggar, an equal distribution yields an even share of resource to them, whereas an unequal distribution gives the prince the majority and leaves little for the beggar, preference over distributions may depend on a decision maker’s roles as a prince or a beggar. Decisions made before learning his roles are immune from being affected by his respective social position, and hence reflect what truly constitutes a just distribution. These are termed as preferences behind VOI, and they are therefore divided into two parts: the decision maker’s inequity aversion and their risk preference. In other words, when making decisions behind VOI, they balance between the desired distribution and the risk of not obtaining the desired role. We study the behavior of non-human primate, Formosan Rock Macaque (Macaca cyclopis), in the face of food decision problems. We conduct a class of modified dictator games in which a proposer chooses between two food allocations, and measure subjects’ preferences, including risk preference, inequity aversion, and preference behind VOI. Our data shows that subjects are strongly risk-loving and exhibit inequity aversion. Also, social context did affect choice in hierarchy system.
Subjects
Formosan Rock Macaque
decision making
veil of ignorance
hierarchy system
social preference
risk preference
Type
thesis
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