By Roland Y. Kim, Ph.D.
In one of the most fascinating animal behavior studies ever filmed, primatologist Frans de Waal placed two capuchin monkeys side by side and asked them to perform a simple task: hand him a small rock in exchange for food. Both were content with cucumbers—until one monkey received a grape instead. The other froze, then flung her cucumber back in outrage, pounding the cage and refusing to cooperate.
De Waal called this reaction “inequity aversion”—a protest against unfair treatment observed in social animals that rely on cooperation (de Waal & Brosnan, 2003). “Fairness,” he argued, “is not a cultural invention but a biological emotion.”
This simple act of primate rebellion tells a larger story about human civilization. The same emotion that drives a monkey to reject a cucumber has, over millennia, evolved into humanity’s moral, legal, and empathic systems of justice. Yet fairness is not static. As societies mature emotionally, the meaning of equality and equity transforms. What one stage calls “fair” can appear unjust to another.
Drawing on my Five Stages of Civilization model (Kim, 2021), we can trace this moral evolution—and understand why fairness in one stage does not transfer to fairness in another.
Stage 1 – Fear and Dependency: Fairness as Survival
At the earliest stage of human organization, fairness means getting enough to live. People accept inequality as long as it secures protection and food. Hierarchies are tolerated because dependence on the strong feels safer than freedom in chaos.
When deprived, however, people react with the same visceral fury as de Waal’s cucumber-throwing monkey. Fairness is measured in calories and safety, not justice or opportunity.
Trigger of unfairness: deprivation, exclusion from the group.
Emotion: panic and rage.
Historical form: feudal loyalty, clan protection, religious fatalism.
Stage 2 – Anger and Detachment: Fairness as Merit
As individuality and ambition rise, fairness shifts from survival to competition. The social rule becomes “You deserve what you earn.” Societies begin to reward ability, productivity, and risk-taking. Inequality is tolerated—even admired—if it seems to arise from merit.
However, when someone gains advantage without effort or through manipulation, moral outrage erupts. Fairness now hinges on relative status, not shared security.
Trigger: corruption, nepotism, undeserved privilege.
Emotion: envy and resentment.
Historical form: capitalist markets, social Darwinism.
Stage 3 – Guilt and Reparation: Fairness as Law and Duty
At this level, fairness matures into justice. Rules, laws, and moral codes emerge to restrain raw competition. The collective conscience demands reciprocity—everyone must follow the same standard.
Equality becomes legal and moral rather than emotional. People appeal to principles, constitutions, and divine commandments. Yet this form of fairness still relies on guilt and punishment more than empathy.
Trigger: hypocrisy, double standards, unequal application of rules.
Emotion: guilt, moral outrage.
Historical form: religious morality, legal institutions, bureaucratic order.
Stage 4 – Freedom and Independence: Fairness as Opportunity
Fairness now shifts from external rule to personal autonomy. It emphasizes equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome. The moral cry becomes “Let me live free.”
Stage 4 societies, such as modern democracies, value due process and individual rights. Fairness is procedural—ensuring that systems are impartial. Yet when liberty is prized without empathy, the suffering of the disadvantaged is rationalized as “their choice.” Freedom without compassion can mask structural inequality.
Trigger: coercion, censorship, or blocked mobility.
Emotion: pride, defensiveness.
Historical form: liberal democracy, civil-rights reforms.
Stage 5 – Empathy and Integration: Fairness as Co-Flourishing
The final stage transcends rule-based justice and merges fairness with empathy. Equality now means ensuring every person can thrive, recognizing that different individuals start from unequal circumstances.
Stage 5 societies practice equity—context-sensitive fairness grounded in compassion. Helping the vulnerable is not charity or guilt relief; it is a natural expression of interdependence. Here, justice, freedom, and empathy converge.
Trigger: humiliation, exclusion, or exploitation of dignity.
Emotion: compassion and moral courage.
Historical form: restorative justice, humanitarianism, open society.
Why Fairness Doesn’t Translate Across Stages
Each stage defines “fairness” in its own emotional language, and fairness does not transfer across stages. This explains many moral and political conflicts today.
A Stage 2 business leader may genuinely believe it is fair that top performers earn exponentially more because “they worked harder.” To a Stage 3 reformer, that same pay gap is unjust—violating the principle of shared responsibility. And to a Stage 5 humanitarian, both perspectives seem incomplete, because neither addresses human dignity or social empathy.
Conversely, a Stage 1 individual may accept an authoritarian leader’s privilege as “natural,” while a Stage 4 citizen sees it as intolerable oppression. Each is emotionally consistent within their own developmental worldview. The tragedy is that they are arguing about fairness, but from different evolutionary coordinates.
Just as the capuchin’s sense of fairness makes no sense to a reptile that doesn’t live socially, the fairness of one civilizational stage appears irrational to another. What counts as justice, merit, or equality is therefore not universal—it matures with emotional evolution.
From Monkeys to Moral Minds
The monkey’s protest reveals the biological seed of morality: the pain of being devalued. Humans evolved by transforming that pain into moral reflection and empathic action. Fairness began as an instinctive protest against deprivation; civilization refined it into justice, then compassion.
Across the Five Stages, fairness travels an emotional arc:
- From the body (Stage 1 survival)
- To the ego (Stage 2 ambition)
- To the conscience (Stage 3 duty)
- To the mind (Stage 4 freedom)
- To the heart (Stage 5 empathy)
Each level preserves the emotions of the one before but interprets them differently. Civilization progresses not by erasing inequality, but by humanizing how we respond to it.
The Future of Fairness
Modern humanity lives technologically at Stage 4, yet emotionally oscillates between Stage 2’s competition and Stage 3’s moralism. We debate wealth gaps and social justice, but our reactions are still shaped by envy, guilt, and tribal fear.
To evolve, societies must integrate empathy into public life—not as sentimentality, but as an organizing principle. As de Waal (2010) observed, “We evolved with sharing as part of the system.” Fairness, then, is not merely a rule to enforce but a relationship to nurture.
Fairness began when a monkey refused a cucumber. It will mature when humanity learns to share grapes—freely, consciously, and with joy.
References
de Waal, F. B. M. (2010). The age of empathy: Nature’s lessons for a kinder society. Broadway Books.
de Waal, F. B. M. (2013, October). Moral behavior in animals [Video]. TED.
https://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_moral_behavior_in_animals
de Waal, F. B. M., & Brosnan, S. F. (2003). Monkeys reject unequal pay. Nature, 425(6955), 297–299. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01963
Kim, R. Y. (2021). The five stages of civilization: From an integrated psychological and psychoanalytic perspective. Living Free Publishing.
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Harvard University Press.
Singer, P. (2011). The expanding circle: Ethics, evolution, and moral progress. Princeton University Press.
Tomasello, M. (2019). Becoming human: A theory of ontogeny. Harvard University Press.