Am Leipziger Max Planck Institut haben zwei Psychologen ein Experiment entwickelt, das mit Kleinkindern faires Teilen simuliert.
Jonathan Haidt erläutert in der New York Times wie die Testpersonen reagieren und was das für die Amerikanische Politik heißen könnte.
Pretend you’re a three-year-old, exploring an exciting new room full of toys. You and another child come up to a large machine that has some marbles inside, which you can see. There’s a rope running through the machine and the two ends of the rope hang out of the front, five feet apart. If you or your partner pulls on the rope alone, you just get more rope. But if you both pull at the same time, the rope dislodges some marbles, which you each get to keep. The marbles roll down a chute, and then they divide: one rolls into the cup in front of you, three roll into the cup in front of your partner.
Das Ergebnis:
In this situation, where both kids have to pull for anyone to get marbles, the children equalize the wealth about 75% of the time, with hardly any conflict. Either the “rich” kid hands over one marble spontaneously or else the “poor” kid asks for one and his request is immediately granted.
Eine Variation macht das Experiment noch interessanter. Nun hängen die gezogenen Schnüre nicht zusammen, jedes Kind gewinnt die Murmeln nur für sich selbst.
Only about 30% of the time did the kids work out an equal split. In other words, the “share-the-spoils” button is not pressed by the mere existence of inequality. It is pressed when two or more people collaborated to produce a gain. Once the button is pressed in both brains, both parties willingly and effortlessly share.
Der Gedanke habe durchaus Implikationen für den Fairnessbegriff in der amerikanischen Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, so Haidt.
So now let’s look at a key line in President Obama’s State of the Union address: “we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.” The president is making three arguments about fairness in this one sentence, but do any of them press the “share-the-spoils” button? If you think that the economy is like a giant marble dispenser with a single rope, then you’d probably agree that if everyone does their “fair share” and pulls on the rope as hard as they can, then everyone is entitled to a “fair share” in the nation’s wealth. But do Americans perceive the economy as a giant collaborative project?
Den vollständigen Kommentar lesen Sie in der New York Times. Den Beitrag der Wissenschaftler finden Sie in nature.
