A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society

Marshall, H. H.; Johnstone, R. A.; Thompson, F. J.; Nichols, Hazel; Wells, D.; Hoffman, J. I.; Kalema-Zikusoka, G.; Sanderson, J. L.; K., E. I.; Blount, J. D.; Cant, M. A.

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-23910-6

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A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society

H. H. Marshall, R. A. Johnstone, F. J. Thompson, Hazel Nichols

, D. Wells, J. I. Hoffman, G. Kalema-Zikusoka, J. L. Sanderson, E. I. K. Vitikainen, J. D. Blount, M. A. Cant

Nature Communications, Volume: 12, Issue: 1, Start page: 3717

Swansea University Author: Hazel Nichols

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DOI (Published version): 10.1038/s41467-021-23910-6

Abstract

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 resourc...

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Published in:	Nature Communications
ISSN:	2041-1723
Published:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2021
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URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56998
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first_indexed	2021-06-01T12:01:18Z
last_indexed	2021-12-01T04:16:02Z
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spelling	2021-11-30T15:26:35.0804463 v2 56998 2021-06-01 A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society 43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe 0000-0002-4455-6065 Hazel Nichols Hazel Nichols true false 2021-06-01 SBI 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 equalised their survival to adulthood. Our findings suggest that a classic idea of moral philosophy also applies to the evolution of cooperation in biological systems. Journal Article Nature Communications 12 1 3717 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2041-1723 23 6 2021 2021-06-23 10.1038/s41467-021-23910-6 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences COLLEGE CODE SBI Swansea University 2021-11-30T15:26:35.0804463 2021-06-01T12:58:10.9936168 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences H. H. Marshall 1 R. A. Johnstone 2 F. J. Thompson 3 Hazel Nichols 0000-0002-4455-6065 4 D. Wells 5 J. I. Hoffman 6 G. Kalema-Zikusoka 7 J. L. Sanderson 8 E. I. K. Vitikainen 9 J. D. Blount 10 M. A. Cant 11 56998__20240__c6a11111d5f349a897924a0646ecfa42.pdf Marshall et al 2021 A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society.pdf 2021-06-24T10:54:22.4770401 Output 705251 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society
spellingShingle	A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society Hazel Nichols
title_short	A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society
title_full	A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society
title_fullStr	A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society
title_full_unstemmed	A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society
title_sort	A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society
author_id_str_mv	43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe
author_id_fullname_str_mv	43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe_***_Hazel Nichols
author	Hazel Nichols
author2	H. H. Marshall R. A. Johnstone F. J. Thompson Hazel Nichols D. Wells J. I. Hoffman G. Kalema-Zikusoka J. L. Sanderson E. I. K. Vitikainen J. D. Blount M. A. Cant
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container_title	Nature Communications
container_volume	12
container_issue	1
container_start_page	3717
publishDate	2021
institution	Swansea University
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doi_str_mv	10.1038/s41467-021-23910-6
publisher	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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description	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 equalised their survival to adulthood. Our findings suggest that a classic idea of moral philosophy also applies to the evolution of cooperation in biological systems.
published_date	2021-06-23T04:12:23Z
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A veil of ignorance can promote fairness in a mammal society

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