"In that famous experiment, didn’t the monkey who received the grape just eat it with great relish, completely indifferent to the rage of its neighbor who got a cucumber? If so, isn’t equality just a myth, and isn’t ‘selfishness’—only getting angry when you personally lose out—the true human instinct?"
This is a chillingly sharp counterargument, like a sudden wake-up call. And it is entirely correct. In behavioral biologist Frans de Waal’s famous "Capuchin Monkey Experiment," the monkey that received the grape never hesitated, nor did it show a shred of guilt. Whether its neighbor shook the cage bars or threw the cucumber in frustration, it was far too busy stuffing the sweet grape into its mouth.
This uncomfortable truth seems to shatter the very foundation of the "equality instinct" we wanted to believe in. Ultimately, it looks like a powerful counter-proof that the true instinct of all living things, including humans, is raw selfishness: keep your mouth shut when you profit, and only rage when you lose. Is human equality then merely a flimsy social dogma, forced upon us to mask the true instinct of selfishness?
However, it is precisely at this junction that anthropologists and neuroscientists discovered a definitive plot twist—the truth that separates humans from monkeys.
The Secret of "Second-Tier Equality" That Capuchin Monkeys Never Knew
While the monkey refused to share its grape, experiments conducted on chimpanzees (the primates closest to humans) and humans produced entirely different results.
Researchers intentionally engineered unequal scenarios where one subject would profit while the other was left to starve. Unlike lower primates, chimpanzees and humans actively rejected situations where they monopolized the rewards, or they chose to split their portion with their partner.
Based on these findings, evolutionary anthropology divides equality into two tiers. First-Tier Equality is the monkey-like version: "I only rage when I lose out (the jealousy of the weak)." Second-Tier Equality, however, is the human version: "Even when I profit, I feel visceral discomfort if the equality of the entire group is broken (the true equality instinct)."
The reason we feel a bitter pang watching the grape-swallowing monkey, yet feel a sense of guilt during moments of dominance ourselves, is that humans evolved past that monkey tier. We acquired a unique gene for second-tier equality—one that pulls the emergency brake even when we are the ones winning.
The Instinct More Terrifying Than Profit: "Nunchi" (Situational Awareness)
Why, then, do humans and chimpanzees willingly surrender their grapes? It is not because humans are born morally superior to monkeys. Beneath the surface lies a deeply calculated weapon of survival embedded as an instinct: "Nunchi" (the hyper-awareness of group dynamics).
For hundreds of thousands of years, the structure that sustained humanity was the reverse dominance hierarchy, where the majority combined forces to overthrow any alpha attempting to monopolize power. In such a tribe, the risk of hoarding a grape all to oneself was catastrophic. Wolfing down the grape today might mean being ostracized by the group during tomorrow’s failed hunt, or worse, being retaliated against and killed under the cover of night.
Therefore, the peculiar discomfort and guilt a powerful person feels during moments of dominance is not a moral luxury. It is a defense mechanism triggered by existential dread: "If I monopolize this now, what if the tribe buries me alive later?" Ultimately, the equality that suppresses our selfishness is itself a meticulously engineered survival instinct designed by evolution to protect us.
Two Trains Colliding Within Us
Within the human heart, two instincts are locked in a violent, perpetual clash like runaway trains: the instinct of selfishness (the urge to eat the whole grape) and the instinct of equality (the guilt and discomfort of being alienated from the pack).
Equality is not an instinct because it is some grand, flawless, absolute virtue. Rather, it is the sole biological "safety device" evolution engineered to restrain infinite human selfishness and greed, preventing the group from imploding.
The monkey that swallowed the grape could not read the rage of its neighbor. Humans, however, are the only species capable of reading despair in the eyes of another, and feeling a deep unease while looking at the grape in our own hands. Even under the modern dogmas of dominance and capital, the fact that we constantly feel the guilt of equality is the clearest sign that the smartest safety device within us is still running perfectly.
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