CAREER: Understanding Responses to Inequitable Outcomes in Non-Human Primates

Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc., Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." Decades of research in economics and social psychology shows that people respond negatively to receiving worse outcomes as compared to other individuals. These reactions impact many decisions in people's daily lives and sometimes lead them to make decisions to their detriment. More recent research indicates that other species exhibit a similar reaction to inequality, often refusing rewards that are inferior to those received by their peers. However, thus far the evolutionary mechanism(s) for and function(s) of this response remain unknown, as does the reason for the significant variation seen in how the response manifests. The proposed research examines the factors surrounding negative reactions to inequity across non-human primate species to determine 1) the mechanism(s) causing this behavioral reaction, 2) the social and/or environmental factors affecting the reaction and 3) the evolutionary history of this reaction. Seven species of primates will be asked to make decisions about whether or not to accept rewards in a series of studies in which their outcomes vary relative to their social partners. The influence of social factors like group membership and individual factors like personality will also be investigated. The results of this research will clarify how decision-making is affected by unequal outcomes. As a CAREER project, this work offers undergraduate and graduate students multiple opportunities to become involved with interdisciplinary research, as well as providing for the development of course materials designed to enhance undergraduate education, which will be freely distributed to the community.