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<oembed><version>1.0</version><provider_name>naked capitalism</provider_name><provider_url>https://www.nakedcapitalism.com</provider_url><author_name>Lambert Strether</author_name><author_url>https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/author/lambert-strether</author_url><title>Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals | naked capitalism</title><type>rich</type><width>600</width><height>338</height><html>&lt;blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="kkc1k1i6UK"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/frans-de-waal-moral-behavior-in-animals.html"&gt;Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/frans-de-waal-moral-behavior-in-animals.html/embed#?secret=kkc1k1i6UK" width="600" height="338" title="&#x201C;Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals&#x201D; &#x2014; naked capitalism" data-secret="kkc1k1i6UK" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt;
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</html><description>By Lambert Strether of Corrente.  Some of us became aware of primatologist Frans de Waal back in 2008 through his concept of inequity aversion: [W]e did a study in which capuchin monkeys received either a grape or a piece of cucumber for a simple task.  If both monkeys got the same reward, there never was a problem. Grapes are by far preferred (as real primates, like us, they go for sugar content), but even if both received cucumber, they&#x2019;d perform the task many times in a row.  However, if they received different rewards, the one who got the short end of the stick would begin to waver in its responses, and very soon start a rebellion by either refusing to perform the task or refusing to eat the cucumber.  This is an &#x201C;irrational&#x201D; response in the sense that if profit-maximizing is what life (and economics) is about, one should always take what one can get. Monkeys will always accept and eat a piece of cucumber whenever we give it to them, but apparently not when their partner is getting a better deal. In humans, this reaction is known as &#x201C;inequity aversion.&#x201D; That seems relevant to the great questions of political economy before us today.  Here's a recent presentation from de Waal at Ted, that focuses on morality, altruism, and empathy, also relevant today -- especially if you're not a neo-liberal or some sort of sociopath.</description></oembed>

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