Commentary: Fairness is intuitive.

Kristian O R Myrseth,Conny E Wollbrant

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00654

Kristian O R Myrseth, Conny E Wollbrant

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00654

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Abstract

Commentary: Fairness is intuitive.

Highlights

Specialty section: This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Cappelen et al (2015) open their paper, “Fairness is intuitive,” with the observation, “A key question in the social sciences is whether it is intuitive to behave in a fair manner or whether fair behavior requires active self-control” (p. 2)
While this premise in and on itself is rather uncontroversial—the conclusion that they draw from it is not: “Since a decision that relies on intuition is typically made faster than a decision that relies on deliberation, the response time of a fair decision relative to a selfish decision provides an important indication of the intuitiveness of fair behavior” (p. 2)

Summary

Introduction

Specialty section: This article was submitted to Personality and Social Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. While this premise in and on itself is rather uncontroversial—the conclusion that they draw from it is not: “Since a decision that relies on intuition is typically made faster than a decision that relies on deliberation, the response time of a fair decision relative to a selfish decision provides an important indication of the intuitiveness of fair behavior” These conditions would require that “fast” rule out “deliberative.” To achieve this, we would need information beyond relative response speed alone—such as absolute decision times.

Results

Conclusion