Distributive Justice in the Lab: Testing the Binding Role of Agreement

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-136
Author(s):  
Marco Faillo ◽  
Laura Marcon ◽  
Pedro Francés-Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Actual Process ◽  
Observable Effect ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
Conditional Preference ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Lorenzo Sacconi

AbstractLorenzo Sacconi and his coauthors have put forward the hypothesis that impartial agreements on distributive rules may generate a conditional preference for conformity. The observable effect of this preference would be compliance with fair distributive rules chosen behind a veil of ignorance, even in the absence of external coercion. This paper uses a Dictator Game with production and taking option to compare two ways in which the device of the veil of ignorance may be thought to generate a motivation for, and compliance with a fair distributive rule: individually-as a thought experiment that should work as a moral cue- and collectively-as an actual process of agreement among subjects. The main result is that actual agreement proves to be necessary for agents to be led towards a fair distributive principle and to generate a significant amount of compliance in absence of external authority. This conclusion vindicates the role of actual agreements in generating motivational power in correspondence with fair distributive rules.

scholarly journals Does impartial reasoning matter in economic decisions? An experimental result about distributive (un)fairness in a production context

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 217
Author(s):  
Laura Marcon ◽  
Pedro Francés-Gómez ◽  
Marco Faillo
Keyword(s):  
Social Contract ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Experimental Result ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
The Veil ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Impartial Reasoning

The Rawlsian social contract presents the veil of ignorance as a thought experiment that should induce agents to behave more fairly within a distributive context. This study uses a laboratory experiment to test the effect of actual reasoning behind the veil, as a moral cue, in a Dictator Game with taking and production. The main hypothesis claims that reflection from an impartial perspective should lead subjects to put themselves in the shoes of who could be the least benefited. Against our expectations, the impact of the moral cue was null and no attempt to rebalance the unjustified differences was observed.

On the Role of Human Mortality in Information System Security

2011 ◽  
pp. 301-319
Author(s):  
Mikko T. Siponen
Keyword(s):  
Information System ◽  
System Security ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Ethical Theories ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
Information System Security ◽  
Security Breaches ◽  
The Veil

The question of whether ethical theories appealing to human morality can serve as a means of protection against information system security breaches has been recognized by several authors. The existing views concerning the role of ethics in information systems security can be divided into two categories. These are (1) expressions about the use of human morality and (2) arguments claiming that the use of ethics is useless or, at best, extremely restricted. However, the former views are general statements lacking concrete guidance and the latter viewpoint is based on cultural relativism, and can be thus classified as descriptivism. This paper claims that the use of ethical theories and human morality is useful for security, particularly given that Hare’s Overriding thesis has validity — though it has its limitations, too. This paper further argues that descriptivism (including the doctrine of cultural relativism) leads to several problems, contradictions and causes detrimental effects to our well-being (and security). Therefore, an alternative approach to using ethics in minimizing security breaches that is based on non-descriptive theories is proposed. The use of non-descriptivism will be demonstrated using Rawls’ concept of the “veil of ignorance.” The limitations of non-descriptivism, and appealing to human morality in a general sense, will also be discussed. Finally, suggestions for future research directions are outlined.

scholarly journals SOCIAL JUSTICE, GENOMIC JUSTICE AND THE VEIL OF IGNORANCE: HARSANYI MEETS MENDEL

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir Okasha
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
Mendelian Genetics ◽  
Division Process ◽  
Impartial Observer ◽  
The Veil ◽  
John Harsanyi ◽  
Shed Light

John Harsanyi and John Rawls both used the veil of ignorance thought experiment to study the problem of choosing between alternative social arrangements. With his ‘impartial observer theorem’, Harsanyi tried to show that the veil of ignorance argument leads inevitably to utilitarianism, an argument criticized by Sen, Weymark and others. A quite different use of the veil-of-ignorance concept is found in evolutionary biology. In the cell-division process called meiosis, in which sexually reproducing organisms produce gametes, the chromosome number is halved; when meiosis is fair, each gene has only a fifty percent chance of making it into any gamete. This creates a Mendelian veil of ignorance, which has the effect of aligning the interests of all the genes in an organism. This paper shows how Harsanyi's version of the veil-of-ignorance argument can shed light on Mendelian genetics. There turns out to be an intriguing biological analogue of the impartial observer theorem that is immune from the Sen/Weymark objections to Harsanyi's original.

scholarly journals John Rawls and compliance to climate change agreements: insights from a laboratory experiment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaudijo Klaser ◽  
Lorenzo Sacconi ◽  
Marco Faillo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Laboratory Experiment ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
Voluntary Compliance ◽  
Open Issue ◽  
The Veil

AbstractThe most evident shortcoming of the international agreements on climate actions is the compliance to their prescriptions. Can John Rawls’s social contract theory help us to solve the problem? We apply the veil of ignorance decision-making setting in a sequential dictator game to study the compliance to climate change agreements and we test the model in a laboratory experiment. The veil of ignorance shows to be very powerful at inducing the subjects to converge on a sustainable intergenerational path. However, the voluntary compliance to the agreement still remains an open issue, because even small incentives to defect can undermine the compliance stability, and therefore break the whole sustainable dynamic.

scholarly journals What Do People Say When They Become “Future People”?―Positioning Imaginary Future Generations (IFGs) in General Rules for Good Decision-Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6631
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Hiromitsu ◽  
Yoko Kitakaji ◽  
Keishiro Hara ◽  
Tatsuyoshi Saijo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Good Decision ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
Present Generation ◽  
General Rules ◽  
The Veil

In public decisions with long-term implications, decisions of the present generation will affect long-term welfare, including future generations. However, only the present generation is able to participate in such decision-making processes. In this study, we invited “Imaginary Future Generations” (IFGs), as participants in a discussion who take on the role of members of future generations to argue on behalf of their future interests to engage in present-day deliberations among residents of a Japanese town. Through analysis, it was seen that the deliberations among IFGs rose interest in issues that are related to common fundamental needs across generations. While the cognitive aspects of interpersonal reactivity, which measure the reactions of one individual to the observed experiences of another, were seen as useful in arguing for the interests of future generations, it was suggested that the environment for deliberation had a significant impact on the ability to effectively take on the role of members of future generations. Finally, this paper positioned IFGs within the broad context of general rules for good decision-making, based on an analysis of these deliberations and in light of philosophical arguments such as the veil of ignorance by John Rawls.

scholarly journals Political Membership in the Contractarian Defense of Cosmopolitanism

2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 442-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea Ypi
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global Distributive Justice ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
Sense Of Justice ◽  
Political Membership

AbstractThis article assesses the recent use of contractarian strategies for the justification of cosmopolitan distributive principles. It deals in particular with the cosmopolitan critique of political membership and tries to reject the claim that political communities are arbitrary for the scope of global justice. By focusing on the circumstances of justice, the nature of the parties, the veil of ignorance, and the sense of justice, the article tries to show that the cosmopolitan critique of political membership modifies the contractarian premises in a way that is both unwarranted and unnecessary. While failing to establish principles of global distributive justice, existing cosmopolitan adaptations of the social contract device simply weaken the method's justificatory potential.

scholarly journals X-Phi and Impartiality Thought Experiments: Investigating the Veil of Ignorance

Diametros ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (64) ◽  
pp. 72-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert Paulo ◽  
Thomas Pölzler
Keyword(s):  
Generic Version ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Normative Judgment ◽  
Veil Of Ignorance ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Empirical Investigations

This paper discusses “impartiality thought experiments”, i.e., thought experiments that attempt to generate intuitions which are unaffected by personal characteristics such as age, gender or race. We focus on the most prominent impartiality thought experiment, the Veil of Ignorance (VOI), and show that both in its original Rawlsian version and in a more generic version, empirical investigations can be normatively relevant in two ways: First, on the assumption that the VOI is effective and robust, if subjects dominantly favor a certain normative judgment behind the VOI this provides evidence in favor of that judgment; if, on the other hand, they do not dominantly favor a judgment this reduces our justification for it. Second, empirical investigations can also contribute to assessing the effectiveness and robustness of the VOI in the first place, thereby supporting or undermining its applications across the board.

Playing the Monster on Stage

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-89
Author(s):  
Thomas Kilroy
Keyword(s):  
Common Thread ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Double Cross

This essay explores theatre's power to take an audience beyond the veil of civilization into an encounter with the human as monstrous. Through the mythology and theatre of the Greeks, through Shakespeare, and into contemporary plays and productions by Bond, Albee, Osborne, and Bejart, the figure of the ‘overreacher’ emerges as a common thread. In extraordinary performances in his own Talbot’s Box and Double Cross, Kilroy traces the role of the actor in exteriorizing the disturbing paradox of the monster as violation and as beauty.

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