[ExI] Meta question again

Tara Maya tara at taramayastales.com
Fri Aug 26 18:31:38 UTC 2016


It is a crazy aspect of human psychology, which undoubtedly causes us a lot of grief. But it isn’t exactly “irrational" for them to be upset once they know one of them has more. From the standpoint of evolutionary psychology, the comparison might well be more important than the absolute amount (as long as it’s above subsistence levels of reward).

Just re-phrase. Five men get a reward… 4 get a  $100 and 1 gets $500. Who is more likely to impress a lady on a date? 

They other four are right to be jealous when you take into account competition for reproduction and not just survival.

> On Aug 25, 2016, at 8:37 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hey! Pay attention at the back! :)  You're a psychologist. You know
> it's all relative.
> If you give a group of people 100 USD each, they go away very happy.
> But if you tell them that group B got 500 USD each, they promptly
> become unhappy, jealous and feel unfairly treated.
> It shouldn't make any difference. They still have their 100 USD each,
> but humans aren't wired like that.

Tara Maya
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