Short-term payoff timing continually tempts even those who grasp that fairness serves long-term interests.

Evidence

Rather, we should look at the purpose of the contract. The payoffs for selfish choices are almost always faster than the payoffs for moral ones. If I fake fairness like an intelligent sociopath, I may eventually be found out, but I will reap rewards in the short run; and the likelihood that I will get away with any given deception increases my temptation to try it. Thus, even if I realize that fairness serves my own long-term interests, I face ongoing pressure from my short-term interests to cheat. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 226

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s stated Big God / fumi-e analysis: this is exactly why public, visible mechanisms like trampling the fumi-e are needed — they strip the anonymity that makes short-term cheating tempting, tying to Baumard et al.’s partner-choice account. — connects to: Short time horizons drive protectors from protection toward extortion
• ADDENDUM: Supports the ‘On Sacrifice’ article’s treatment of high-stakes moral enforcement — the temporal gap between selfish and moral payoffs is the very pressure that public ritual observability is built to counter.

Broader Connections

• Short time horizons drive protectors from protection toward extortion #exemplifies (0.85)