Cross-Disciplinary Conversations: A Psychological Perspective on Justice Research with Non-human Animals

Social Justice Research has devoted two recent issues to the topic of inequity responses in non-human animals. The goal of this paper is to provide
some commentary from the perspective of psychological theory and research on justice and fairness in humans. In an attempt
to build greater cross-disciplinary sharing of ideas and insights, I briefly review the major insights from (a) contemporary
research on questions of fairness and justice with non-human primates and how this corpus of knowledge can inform the on-going
study of these issues in psychology and related disciplines, and (b) 50-plus years of research on justice and fairness in
psychology and related disciplines, and how it can inform contemporary research efforts with non-human animals going forward.
The spotlight behavioral economists and justice research with non-human animals places on the primary role of distributive
justice is suggestive that it may be time for a renaissance of interest in this topic in psychology and related disciplines.
The focus of psychological research on topics such as boundary conditions on equity as key justice concern (e.g., alternative
distributive norms such as equality and need), as a well as attention given to procedural, interactional, retributive, and
restorative justice, is suggestive that research with non-human animals should broaden its horizons to study alternative conceptions
of justice and fairness.