Article Title
Is a Sense of Inequity an Ancestral Primate Trait? Testing Social Inequity in Cotton Top Tamarins
Department
Psychology
Journal Title
Journal of Comparative Psychology
Publication Date
2009
First Page
10
Last Page
17
Publisher
American Psychological Association
File Name
085_Neiworth-Julie_IsASenseOfInequityAnAncestralPrimateTrait.pdf
Keywords
inequity, social, tamarins, primates, evolution
Abstract
To address a controversy in the literature concerning whether monkeys show an aversion to inequity, individuals of a New World monkey species, cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) were tested in an offering task and in a bartering task. At issue was whether the monkeys rejected rewards because of a violation of expectancy of the preferred reward, or whether they rejected rewards because of a sensitivity to socially mediated inequity. The data from both tasks indicated that the subjects were more likely to reject when preferred rewards were presented, either because of another animal eating the reward (the social condition) or because of rewards being presented but inaccessible. The bartering task led to the only behavioral indication of aversion due specifically to social inequity, which was demonstrated when tamarins’ sensitivity to the difference in rewards increased with exposure to other tamarins working to receive the preferred rewards. The results suggest that social inequity aversion will be assessed by tamarins, and possibly by other primates, only under conditions of limited resources and a requirement of work, which may make the situation a bit more competitive and thus drives attention toward both social and reward evaluation
Rights Management
Carleton College does not own the copyright to this work and the work is available through the Carleton College Library following the original publisher's policies regarding self-archiving. For more information on the copyright status of this work, refer to the current copyright holder.
RoMEO Color
Green
Preprint Archiving
Yes
Postprint Archiving
Yes
Publisher PDF Archiving
No
Paid OA Option
Yes
Contributing Organization
Carleton College
Type
Article
Format
application/pdf
Language
English
DOI
10.1037/a0012662
Recommended Citation
Neiworth, J. J., Johnson, E. T., Whillock, K., Greenberg, J., & Brown, V. (2009). Is a Sense of Inequity an Ancestral Primate Trait? Testing Social Inequity in Cotton Top Tamarins. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 123 (1), 10-17. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012662. Accessed via Faculty Work. Psychology. Carleton Digital Commons. https://digitalcommons.carleton.edu/psyc_faculty/1
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012662
