Paper 63
Can animals have wealth inequality?
Researchers propose using economics to understand ecology.
Wealth inequality 1. __________ (follow) human societies around the world for
millennia. But is it exclusive to humans?
A review in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences proposes studying
the wealth inequality of animal societies. This framing, which the researchers argue,
2. __________ (can) allow for new insights into animal behaviour.
The idea first 3. __________ (occur) to co-authors Eli Strauss, from the Max Planck
Institute of Animal Behaviour, Germany, and Daizaburo Shizuka, from the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, US, when they started to look at economics and sociological
research on wealth inequality.
“Reading these fascinating sociology and economics papers, I 4. __________ (strike)
that this work 5. __________ (share) a common goal with my work in animal
behaviour, which is that we both want to understand how inequality arises and
affects outcomes for individuals and groups,” says Strauss.
There 6. __________ (be) plenty of research on animal societies, resources and social
power. But the researchers think that pulling these themes together under wealth
inequality 7.__________ (give) them a new way to look at the field.
“As we read, we wondered how the scholarship on the causes and consequences of
inequality in humans 8. __________ (can) help biologists like us better understand
animal societies,” says Shizuka.
There’s an obvious fly in the ointment here: animals 9. __________ (not have)
money. But then, neither did many human societies, and that hasn’t stopped wealth
inequality analyses there.
“These societies show varying degrees of wealth inequality, but wealth
10. __________ (limit) to bills and coins,” says Strauss.
Ans
1. has followed
2. could allow
3. occurred
4. was struck
5. shares
6. is
7. gives
8. could help
9. don’t have
10. isn’t limited
Wealth inequality has followed human societies around the world for millennia. But
is it exclusive to humans?
A review in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences proposes studying
the wealth inequality of animal societies. This framing, argue the researchers, could
allow for new insights into animal behaviour.
The idea first occurred to co-authors Eli Strauss, from the Max Planck Institute of
Animal Behaviour, Germany, and Daizaburo Shizuka, from the University of Nebraska-
Lincoln, US, when they started to look at economics and sociological research on
wealth inequality.
“Reading these fascinating sociology and economics papers, it struck me that this
work shares a common goal with my work in animal behaviour, which is that we both
want to understand how inequality arises and affects outcomes for individuals and
groups,” says Strauss.
There is plenty of research on animal societies, resources and social power. But the
researchers think that pulling these themes together under wealth inequality gives
them a new way to look at the field.
“As we read, we wondered how the scholarship on the causes and consequences of
inequality in humans could help biologists like us better understand animal societies,”
says Shizuka.
There’s an obvious fly in the ointment here: animals don’t have money. But then,
neither did many human societies, and that hasn’t stopped wealth inequality
analyses there.
“These societies show varying degrees of wealth inequality, but wealth isn’t limited
to bills and coins,” says Strauss.
Instead, food and resource security, and influence or social relationships, can be used
to determine the wealth of an individual. And plenty of animal groups have those.
So what can we learn from this? The researchers think that it can lead to a more
comprehensive understanding of ecology.
“The structure of a society has a lot of different influences on all individuals that live
within it,” says Shizuka.
“The biology of animal societies includes these types of dynamics, and we can’t
understand the evolution of social animals without recognising this feedback
between the individual and the society.”
But the researchers caution that animal wealth inequality isn’t identical to that found
in human societies.
“We can look to other species to understand the general evolutionary processes that
produce all animals, ourselves included,” says Strauss,
“But the question of what makes an ethical human society is fundamentally a moral
question where the social lives of animals can’t guide us. This is something we need
to figure out on our own.”
