Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by darknavi | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

darknavi

My main take away is that humans are pretty good at eyeballing 50/50 splits.

View on HN

Humans are wired to detect unfairness. I bet numerous other animals are too.

https://parentingscience.com/babies-expect-fairness/

Yeah, just imagine the shape is a piece of a pie.

Kids have birthday cake all the time. Believe me they're practiced.

Though they are sensitive to more than the size; they also want the slices with the nice colors and toppings :)

This is a great read. While I'm not 100% sure the method (looking time) is the best, I love how the results are consistent across many experiments. Ofc, the key take away is that it doesn't really matter because personal experiences take over the inherent human "hard wiring".

Two Monkeys Were Paid Unequally: Excerpt from Frans de Waal's TED Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg

Oh man, that reminds me of the Parable in the bible[1] where everyone gets a full day's wage for as little as one hours work; the workers were fine getting a full day's wage for a full day's work up until those working just one hour got the same at which point they were furious.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Workers_in_the_...

There is something weird in our cognitive systems about envy. Wonder why nature "invented" it.

Quite simple if you think of Darwinian evolution - those who get more (and their offspring) outcompete you and your offspring for a limited resource so a resource struggle ensues.

The dynamics of envy leads to individuals segregating, revolting, starving and dying. Is not for nothing that all religions have it as a sin. And I am looking at it with darwinian eyes.

It also makes you think twice before taking more than your fair share, which is the point.

Unfairness deterrence.

You really made me think there.

Thanks for sharing that one.

That idea would imply that homo sapiens (and perhaps other species) instinctually compute possible future dangers of making enemies out of what would be perceived as taking an unfair share. This can trigger a very rich discussion in so many directions. Thanks again for the insight.

Here's some food for thought: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_cake-cutting

I was introduced to this subject through this concise book: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/evolution-of-the-social...

It's a simple precommitment that avoids huge classes of ways to exploit you. Probably similar to instinctively refusing to pay blackmail even when it's notionally in your interest.

A lot of it probably has to do with competition with siblings too. I know personally that was always a thing with us. We aggressively monitored each others' getting of stuff. I still laugh about it sometimes. So silly but I'm glad people learn this way while the stakes are lower

And comparing sizes of areas in general. There is a small card game called Illusion that is built around that idea.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244995/illusion

It would be interesting to see how the ability correlates with social behaviour. Having one or more siblings and the need to share pie, cake, or vlaai probably creates a modest selective pressure.

that time I had to divide my family's coffee mug in half using nothing but a donut really stuck with me

Reply on news.ycombinator.com