The ontogeny of cooperative cognition and fairness norms in distributive dilemmas.

This paper explores a naturalistic and culturally situated perspective on the ontogeny of cooperative cognition and fairness norms in distributive dilemmas involving the allocation of resources. According to this approach, the decision-making process in distributive dilemmas is grounded on general considerations about others' well-being and respecting everyone's interests and rights in conflictive interactions. The sense of fairness is also conceived as the outcome of social interactions and is modulated by contextual factors. However, I claim that the human sense of fairness in distributive dilemmas is certainly bounded by concrete principles that govern its expression and guide the establishment of reasonable, generalizable, and prescriptive solutions in cooperative situations. This logic is broadly confirmed by multiple pieces of evidence from evolutionary-informed and cross-cultural studies within behavioral sciences. Finally, I suggest that cooperative cognition and fairness norms in distributive dilemmas must be explored as scientifically relevant issues independent of ideological assumptions that usually result in problematic interpretations of the empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]