How high is the price we would pay for justice?

A sense of justice and injustice is an evolved moral emotion to signal to others that if exchanges are not fair there will be a price to pay. In the Ultimatum Game, in which one person is given a sum of money to divide with another person — with the stipulation that if the offer is accepted both keep the money, but if the offer is rejected no one gets any money — offers less than 30 percent of the sum are typically rejected. That is, we are willing to pay 30 percent to punish an offender. This is called moralistic punishment.

You’ve probably seen visual illusions — where your eye and brain think they’re seeing something different than they really are. What you may not realize is that there are cognitive illusions, too. There are several biases in how we think. Our brains are wired to jump to quick conclusions. This is useful in reacting quickly to our environment, but sometimes these fast conclusions and decisions lead to cognitive illusions.