A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society

Autor: Harry H. Marshall, Emma I. K. Vitikainen, Joseph I. Hoffman, David A. Wells, Jennifer L. Sanderson, Hazel J. Nichols, Rufus A. Johnstone, Michael A. Cant, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Faye J. Thompson, Jonathan D. Blount
Přispěvatelé: Biosciences, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Marshall, HH [0000-0003-2120-243X], Thompson, FJ [0000-0001-7581-2204], Nichols, HJ [0000-0002-4455-6065], Wells, D [0000-0002-4531-5968], Vitikainen, EIK [0000-0003-3718-0941], Cant, MA [0000-0002-1530-3077], Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository, Marshall, H. H. [0000-0003-2120-243X], Thompson, F. J. [0000-0001-7581-2204], Nichols, H. J. [0000-0002-4455-6065], Wells, D. [0000-0002-4531-5968], Vitikainen, E. I. K. [0000-0003-3718-0941], Cant, M. A. [0000-0002-1530-3077]
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Male
Reproduction (economics)
REPRODUCTIVE COMPETITION
General Physics and Astronomy
Distribution (economics)
Ignorance
Breeding
01 natural sciences
Pregnancy
Kinship
media_common
Social evolution
Multidisciplinary
Behavior
Animal
Reproduction
Evolutionary theory
Veil of ignorance
1181 Ecology
evolutionary biology
Female
Psychology
FOS: Medical biotechnology
Social psychology
BEHAVIOR
Inequality
Offspring
Herpestidae
Birth weight
media_common.quotation_subject
Science
010603 evolutionary biology
General Biochemistry
Genetics and Molecular Biology
Article
03 medical and health sciences
Animals
631/181/2468
Social Behavior
631/181/2469
BREEDING BANDED MONGOOSE
business.industry
Body Weight
General Chemistry
CARE
Models
Theoretical
EVOLUTION
030104 developmental biology
Animals
Newborn
Social Dominance
YOUNG
INFERENCE
business
Zdroj: Nature Communications
Nature Communications, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2021)
University of Roehampton-PURE
ISSN: 2041-1723
Popis: Rawls argued that fairness in human societies can be achieved if decisions about the distribution of societal rewards are made from behind a veil of ignorance, which obscures the personal gains that result. Whether ignorance promotes fairness in animal societies, that is, the distribution of resources to reduce inequality, is unknown. Here we show experimentally that cooperatively breeding banded mongooses, acting from behind a veil of ignorance over kinship, allocate postnatal care in a way that reduces inequality among offspring, in the manner predicted by a Rawlsian model of cooperation. In this society synchronized reproduction leaves adults in a group ignorant of the individual parentage of their communal young. We provisioned half of the mothers in each mongoose group during pregnancy, leaving the other half as matched controls, thus increasing inequality among mothers and increasing the amount of variation in offspring birth weight in communal litters. After birth, fed mothers provided extra care to the offspring of unfed mothers, not their own young, which levelled up initial size inequalities among the offspring and equalized their survival to adulthood. Our findings suggest that a classic idea of moral philosophy also applies to the evolution of cooperation in biological systems.
Obscuring knowledge of personal gains from individuals can theoretically maintain fairness in a cooperative group. Experiments show that wild, cooperatively breeding banded mongooses uncertain of kinship allocate postnatal care in a way that reduces inequality among offspring, suggesting a classic idea of moral philosophy can apply in biological systems.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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