Professor: Mike Urbancic
4 credits
Humans understand fairness from a very young age. And we’re not alone! Some primates, canines, rodents, and corvids display inequity aversion: a dissatisfaction with unfair outcomes. A sense of fairness is an adaptive trait for cooperative species.
At their core, the biggest challenges we face in the world—social, political, economic, environmental, and so on—involve problems of coordination and cooperation. A deeper understanding of fairness and equity will help us in searching for, designing, and implementing potential solutions. (Easier said than done, of course.)
To a surprising degree, the words “fairness” and “equity” defy any concise explanation or straightforward formulation. On top of theoretical complications and inconsistencies, our feelings about them are strongly shaped by cultural values, precedent, and context. Mechanisms that strike us as fair or equitable in one setting may seem repugnant in another.
This course investigates the fundamental principles underlying the concepts of fairness and equity, helping us to recognize our own preconceived ideas and to understand different perspectives. Cooperative game theory provides a systematic approach to thinking through strategic interactions and possible outcomes. With these stronger foundations in place, we will work together to apply the principles of fairness and equity to analyze pressing, real-world issues.