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A little more than 10 years ago, doctoral candidate Sarah Brosnan wanted to know if the notion of fairness exists outside of the human species.
Brosnan constructed an experiment where Capuchin monkeys were required to exchange a small stone with a researcher to get a reward. Usually, the reward was a slice of cucumber, which was quite acceptable to the monkeys.
Occasionally, researchers would reward some monkeys, in view of the others, with grapes. Grapes are the Snickers bar in Capuchin monkey society, apparently, and soon monkeys receiving only cucumbers realized the inequity. Why were their peers given grapes for the same tasks?
The cucumber monkeys first tried to be reasonable by refusing the cucumber and offering a different stone. When researchers responded with yet another cucumber slice, the frustrated monkeys began hurling the cucumbers back at the researchers.
It seems that Capuchin monkeys possess a well-developed sense of fairness.
Should we expect the same fairness from the Missouri legislature? Should our state politicians be held to the standard of the Capuchin monkeys?
When an employer violates a safety rule in Missouri and a worker suffers injury as a result, our state legislature gives the worker a 15 percent increase in benefits. If a worker violates a safety rule and suffers injury, the legislature penalizes the worker in an amount up to 50 percent, more than three times the employer’s penalty for the same violation.
The relevant statute is 287.120 RSMo.
Why the disparate treatment? Why are workers asked to shoulder the burden for safety, while employers, or more likely, insurance companies, get off so cheaply?
Ask your state senator or representative. Also ask that legislator if he or she is financed by one or more of the insurance lobbies in the state.
If your state legislators don’t even possess the notion of fairness shared by Capuchin monkeys, they need new jobs more in line with their skills. Exchanging rocks for cucumbers comes to mind.
Darren Morrison is an attorney practicing workers’ compensation law at Morrison, Webster & Carlton in Springfield.
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