Objections to huge salaries stem from perceived contribution, not raw egalitarianism.
Evidence
Social selection should, moreover, favor considerations of fairness in assessing each partner’s contribution. For instance, most people who object to the huge salaries of chief executive officers (CEOs) or football stars do so not out of simple equalitarianism but because they see these salaries as far above what would be justified by the actual contributions to the common good of those who earn them — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 95
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in Big God mechanisms and fairness norms — fairness judgments grounded in contribution assessment, not abstract equality, feeds into how moral systems evaluate desert. — connects to: People accept large inequalities they judge as earned or deserved. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 712; Fairness evolved to distribute payoffs by input, not equally. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 310; Fairness in economic games tracks perceived entitlement rather than raw contribution. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 467
Related
- People accept large inequalities they judge as earned or deserved. (similarity 0.84)
- People disagree persistently about what makes inequality fair (similarity 0.81)
- Fairness judgments track each participant’s earned contribution, not just payoff equality. (similarity 0.80)
- Humans pervasively prefer meritocratic benefit distributions. (similarity 0.78)
- Human fairness means overriding merit to aid the needy. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- People accept large inequalities they judge as earned or deserved.
#corroborates(0.92) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 712 - Fairness in economic games tracks perceived entitlement rather than raw contribution.
#qualifies(0.80) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 467 - Fairness evolved to distribute payoffs by input, not equally.
#qualifies(0.72) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 310