Research

Fairness is an important thing humans care about: we don’t like people who behave in an unfair way and we are ready to help and compensate people who suffered unfairness. But why do humans care about fairness in the first place? Is fairness entirely a cultural product or also has a biological basis? What are the evolutionary advantages of being fair in nature? And how do we depart from other primates regarding this matter?

My PhD aimed at answering these questions, using both theoretical and experimental approaches. I did it at the Ecole normale supérieure de Paris in the Biology Institute and the Evolution and Social Cognition team, under the supervision of Nicolas Baumard and Jean-Baptiste André.

 

I summarized these works in a series of videos on Youtube, here is the first one (activate the english subtitles!):

If you want more details, you can read the book by Nicolas Baumard:

Baumard, N. (2015). The Origins of Fairness: How Evolution Explains Our Moral Nature. Oxford University Press.

or the same book in french:

Baumard, N. (2011). Comment nous sommes devenus moraux: Une histoire naturelle du bien et du mal. (O. Jacob, Ed.).)

If you still want more details, I’m afraid you will have to read the boring scientific papers.