A personyou would refuse a glass of water even if you are thirsty if you consider that the offer they make is unfair, according to a new study from University College London, in the United Kingdom. The finding has important implications for understanding which criteria we value the most when making decisions.
While chimpanzees, our closest relatives, are willing to accept any offer without judging on the basis of subjective criteria whether it is “fair” or “unfair”, several experiments show that humans are even willing to give up earning money if we consider that They make us an inappropriate offer, for example if they offer another person more quantity under the same conditions. Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging decided to find out if this is also true when offers affect physiological needs such as food, water or sex. In their experiments they worked with 21 healthy participants and, after subjecting them to extreme thirst, they offered them 62.5 milliliter glasses of water, while the person making the offer kept a 500 milliliter bottle. Participants had 15 seconds to accept or reject the proposal. And in most cases they said no to the glass even when their blood tests showed that they physiologically needed to drink.
“Surprisingly, humans tend torejecting an unfair proposal for a primary reward such as food or watereven if they are in a position to need it “, clarifies Nick Wright, co-author of the work. This motivation seems to go against their own interests, so it is fascinating to try to” understand how this subjective feeling of justiceinfluences our daily decisions, including those related tothe labor market“, adds the researcher.
