Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T05:48:40.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Fairness, more than any other cognitive mechanism, is what explains the content of folk-economic beliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2018

Nicolas Baumard
Affiliation:
Département d'Etudes Cognitives [Department of Cognitive Sciences], Ecole Normale Supérieure, 75230 Paris, France. nbaumard@gmail.comcoralie.chevallier@gmail.comjeanbaptisteandre@gmail.comhttps://sites.google.com/site/nicolasbaumard/https://sites.google.com/site/coraliechevallier/http://jb.homepage.free.fr/
Coralie Chevallier
Affiliation:
Département d'Etudes Cognitives [Department of Cognitive Sciences], Ecole Normale Supérieure, 75230 Paris, France. nbaumard@gmail.comcoralie.chevallier@gmail.comjeanbaptisteandre@gmail.comhttps://sites.google.com/site/nicolasbaumard/https://sites.google.com/site/coraliechevallier/http://jb.homepage.free.fr/
Jean-Baptiste André
Affiliation:
Département d'Etudes Cognitives [Department of Cognitive Sciences], Ecole Normale Supérieure, 75230 Paris, France. nbaumard@gmail.comcoralie.chevallier@gmail.comjeanbaptisteandre@gmail.comhttps://sites.google.com/site/nicolasbaumard/https://sites.google.com/site/coraliechevallier/http://jb.homepage.free.fr/

Abstract

We applaud Boyer & Petersen's (B&P's) article on economic folk beliefs. We believe that it is crucial for the future of democracy to identify the cognitive systems through which people form their beliefs about the working of the economy. In this commentary, we put forward the idea that, although many systems are involved, fairness is probably the main driver of folk-economic beliefs.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baron, J. (1994) Nonconsequentialist decisions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 17(1):110.Google Scholar
Baumard, N., André, J. B. & Sperber, D. (2013a) A mutualistic approach to morality: The evolution of fairness by partner choice. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(1):5978.Google Scholar
Baumard, N., André, J.-B. & Sperber, D. (2013b) Partner choice, fairness, and the extension of morality. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(1):102–22. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X12000672.Google Scholar
Boyer, P. (2001) Religion explained: The evolutionary origin of religious thought. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Debove, S., Baumard, N. & André, J. B. (2017) On the evolutionary origins of equity. PLoS ONE 12(3):e0173636. Available at: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173636Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. (1978) Taking rights seriously. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Starmans, C., Sheskin, M. & Bloom, P. (2017) Why people prefer unequal societies. Nature: Human Behaviour 1: article no. 0082. (Online publication). doi: 10.1038/s41562-017-0082. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0082.Google Scholar