There is an active debate among philosophers and scientists concerning whether non-human animals (hereafter ‘animals’) have a sense of fairness. One problem with the debate is evidence for each view is centered around distributive fairness—whether animals share resources equally and protest unequal distributions. I will argue we do not know whether animals have a sense of distributive fairness. Current empirical evidence is inconclusive— some studies suggest animals do share resources equally, other studies suggest they do not share resources equally. Similarly, some studies suggest animals do protest unequal distributions, and other studies suggest they do not protest unequal distributions. But the evidence on neither side is strong enough to override the conflicting evidence on the other side.

Luckily, this inconclusiveness is not a problem, because although distributive fairness is sufficient for a sense of fairness, it is not necessary. Retributive fairness is also sufficient for a sense of fairness. Since animals do have a sense of retributive fairness, and since retributive fairness is a kind of fairness, I conclude that animals do have a sense of fairness.

Angela Bischof is an assistant teaching professor of philosophy at Northern Arizona University. She received her PhD from Duke University in 2022. Her research concerns animal cognition and morality.