Tuesday, August 5, 2008

its in our heads...

Hard-Wired for Fairness


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Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com
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2 comments:

Jay said...

Are the results an indication of our interpretation of fairness or is this study an indication of something else?

What are the determining factors of fairness? What is fairness? Fairness is another construct of humankind, much like similar notions such as good, bad ,evil, righteous, etc.

This appears to be a case where the scientists had a hypothesis and molded a study around the claim. For example, one could assert the box office report during the initial days of release are an indicator of the quality of the film in question. Yet we know this cannot be the case because quality is a subjective term, while box office results are not open to interpretation. What would the amount of earnings tell us about a movie? It tells us how much it earned during initial release. Nothing more. There are many "good" movies which did not earn in the box office, yet earned substantially in rentals and purchases. The opposite is true as well.

My point is this study tells us one thing. Humans are mammals and not unlike Pavlovian canines. Rub our bellies and give us a treat. Please us and certain receptors will light up on the brain machine-thingamabob.

August 5, 2008 at 6:19 PM
DavidFL10 said...

Jim,
If you ever read the FairTax chapter I sent you from Mike Gravel’s book, you may remember that one of his most prominent themes demonstrates his understanding of the phenomenon described in this article. He asserts that the transparency of the tax and the knowledge that everyone is paying the same rate above poverty spending make the idea of cheating less appealing than under the current system. Today, no one thinks the tax code is “fair”, so no one feels good about complying with it. Thus, we all feel justified in pushing the rules as much as possible to pay as little as possible.
Indeed, this is one of the reasons I support it so strongly. Americans need to feel good about how they are being treated by the government.

August 5, 2008 at 9:56 PM

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