Solidarity and social justice in contemporary
societies
College 1: Introduction
Social inequality = the uneven allocation of burdens and valued resources across
members of a society based on their group membership in combination with the
undervaluation of these members of society based on their group membership
Social dilemma = situations in which individuals are better of if they do not act
cooperatively, but everybody is better off if everyone cooperates compared to the
situation in which no one cooperates
Types of social dilemmas
1. Take-some/resource dilemma; tragedy of the common = situations in
which a course of action that offers positive outcomes for the self leads to
negative outcomes for the collective (individuals have to give up certain
privileges to end up with a fairer society)
2. Give-some/public good dilemma = situations in which an action that results
in negative consequences for the self would, if performed by enough people,
lead to positive consequences for the collective (everyone needs to pay into the
system to support those in need)
Retrenchment & fragmentation of welfare state emphasis on individual
responsibility as opposed to welfare state support
Homo economicus
- Rational choice theory = people are rational beings, weighing costs and
benefits and striving for maximum net benefit
- Theory of evolution, natural selection = there are hereditary traits with
blind variation and differences in fitness of the variants of these traits
descent with modification / survival of the fittest
Humans are basically self-interested
Natural selection favours self-interest
- These models cannot adequately account for human cooperation…
C cooperators
D defection
, Even when you start with all cooperators, a defector will appear. And the defectors will
take over the cooperators.
RCT favors self-interst: prisoner’s dilemma
Social value orientation
In reality, in social dilemma, a lot of times people choose to cooperate (to be pro-
social). In the research above you see more pro-social than people choosing for
themselves. About 70% of people is pro-social
Perspective-taking & empathy
- Control: ‘’Try to be as objective as possible
about what happened to the person
interviewed and how it had affected his or
her life’’
- Imagine-other: ‘’Try to imagine how the
person being interviewed feels about what
has happened and how this affected his or
her life’’
- Imagine-self: ‘’Try to imagine how you
yourself would feel if you were
experiencing what has happened to the
person being interviewed and how this experience would affect your life’’
Do we have self-transcending motives of justice and solidarity or is all behaviour
ultimately driven by self-interest?
- Rational choice theory and the theory of evolution have been highly successful
and make self-transcending values unlikely
societies
College 1: Introduction
Social inequality = the uneven allocation of burdens and valued resources across
members of a society based on their group membership in combination with the
undervaluation of these members of society based on their group membership
Social dilemma = situations in which individuals are better of if they do not act
cooperatively, but everybody is better off if everyone cooperates compared to the
situation in which no one cooperates
Types of social dilemmas
1. Take-some/resource dilemma; tragedy of the common = situations in
which a course of action that offers positive outcomes for the self leads to
negative outcomes for the collective (individuals have to give up certain
privileges to end up with a fairer society)
2. Give-some/public good dilemma = situations in which an action that results
in negative consequences for the self would, if performed by enough people,
lead to positive consequences for the collective (everyone needs to pay into the
system to support those in need)
Retrenchment & fragmentation of welfare state emphasis on individual
responsibility as opposed to welfare state support
Homo economicus
- Rational choice theory = people are rational beings, weighing costs and
benefits and striving for maximum net benefit
- Theory of evolution, natural selection = there are hereditary traits with
blind variation and differences in fitness of the variants of these traits
descent with modification / survival of the fittest
Humans are basically self-interested
Natural selection favours self-interest
- These models cannot adequately account for human cooperation…
C cooperators
D defection
, Even when you start with all cooperators, a defector will appear. And the defectors will
take over the cooperators.
RCT favors self-interst: prisoner’s dilemma
Social value orientation
In reality, in social dilemma, a lot of times people choose to cooperate (to be pro-
social). In the research above you see more pro-social than people choosing for
themselves. About 70% of people is pro-social
Perspective-taking & empathy
- Control: ‘’Try to be as objective as possible
about what happened to the person
interviewed and how it had affected his or
her life’’
- Imagine-other: ‘’Try to imagine how the
person being interviewed feels about what
has happened and how this affected his or
her life’’
- Imagine-self: ‘’Try to imagine how you
yourself would feel if you were
experiencing what has happened to the
person being interviewed and how this experience would affect your life’’
Do we have self-transcending motives of justice and solidarity or is all behaviour
ultimately driven by self-interest?
- Rational choice theory and the theory of evolution have been highly successful
and make self-transcending values unlikely
