the.com/fairness
the rule kids invent before they can spell, then spend adulthood arguing about
means the quality of treating people equally, impartially, and according to what they deserve, without favoritism or cheating
from From 'fair' plus the noun-making suffix '-ness.' The root 'fair' comes from Old English 'fæger,' meaning beautiful, pleasing, or lovely — so the earliest sense was about good looks, not justice. Over centuries the word drifted from 'pleasant to the eye' toward 'pleasant in conduct': free from bias, honest, just. The same root gives us 'fair' the adjective (a fair maiden), 'fair' the weather (clear and pleasant), and 'fair' as in unblemished — all cousins descended from that Old English notion of pleasing beauty, which slowly broadened to mean pleasing because it's even-handed.
- monkey test
- capuchins reject cucumber when neighbors get grapes
- brain spot
- unfairness lights up the same region as disgust
- ultimatum game
- humans reject free money to punish unfair offers
- toddler ethics
- babies stare longer at unequal treat splits
- word origin
- meant beautiful before it meant just
rawls theory of justice — john rawls' 1971 philosophical framework defining fairness through the 'veil of ignorance' thought experiment
equal pay act 1963 — u.s. federal law requiring men and women receive equal compensation for substantially equal work
world trade organization — 164-member international body established 1995 to enforce fair trade rules between nations