Power and the tripwire of fairness
Published: 15 Dec. 2025, 00:01
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
The author is a senior columnist at the JoongAng Ilbo.
In 1982, researchers at the University of Cologne in Germany published the results of a three-year psychology experiment known as the ultimatum game. In it, one participant — the proposer — was given between four and 10 Deutsche marks and told to divide the money with another participant — the responder — however they wished. If the responder accepted the offer, the money was split accordingly. If the responder rejected it as unfair, both sides received nothing.
![As allegations of illicit payments involving the Unification Church roil the political world, a view of the Cheon Jeong Gung complex in Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, which serves as the church’s de facto headquarters, on the morning of Dec. 12. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/15/889d55f4-21d8-4c20-89b3-e89ae2ee39af.jpg)
As allegations of illicit payments involving the Unification Church roil the political world, a view of the Cheon Jeong Gung complex in Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, which serves as the church’s de facto headquarters, on the morning of Dec. 12. [YONHAP]
The rational choice would seem obvious. Receiving even one mark is better than nothing. Yet the results defied simple logic. Proposers typically offered between 30 and 50 percent. When offers fell below 20 percent, however, about half of responders rejected them outright. The experiment has since been widely cited as evidence that humans value a certain standard of fairness beyond narrow self-interest.
![Chun Jae-soo, minister of oceans and fisheries, speaks to reporters after returning via Incheon International Airport on the morning of Dec. 11 to address allegations of illicit payments linked to the Unification Church. He resigned from his post later that day. [KIM KYUNG-ROK]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/15/e047343d-d16e-45c7-99c1-53f13e664caf.jpg)
Chun Jae-soo, minister of oceans and fisheries, speaks to reporters after returning via Incheon International Airport on the morning of Dec. 11 to address allegations of illicit payments linked to the Unification Church. He resigned from his post later that day. [KIM KYUNG-ROK]
Kim Hak-jin, a neuroscientist at Korea University, has argued that the desire for fairness stems from self-esteem and the wish to be recognized by as many people as possible within society. When individuals perceive unfairness, he has explained, the insular cortex, a brain region associated with unpleasant pain, becomes activated, as confirmed by neurological observation (Monthly JoongAng interview, April 2022). In Korea, fairness has long ranked as a top social value. According to a 2022 Gallup Korea survey, 32.4 percent of respondents cited fairness as more important than freedom, the rule of law or justice. The yearning for fairness is particularly strong among younger generations facing countless choices and competitions, a reflection, perhaps, of their sense that society remains fundamentally unfair.
Fairness, however, is notoriously difficult to define. It is often discussed in terms of equality of opportunity, equality of outcomes and equality of conditions. Equality of opportunity is relatively straightforward. Equality of outcomes, by contrast, tends to generate confusion by downplaying differences in ability, achievement and contribution, an approach often associated with progressive or socialist thinking. In recent years, the concept gaining traction in complex modern societies is equality of conditions. Formal rules guaranteeing equal opportunity are no longer seen as sufficient. True fairness requires conditions free from favoritism, opacity, tacit solicitation, special treatment, quid pro quo arrangements, corruption and backroom collusion.
This equality of conditions is closely tied to trust in those who hold power. Even when laws and institutions appear to provide equal opportunity on the surface, it is the responsibility of governing authorities to remove the hidden contaminants embedded in practice. To do so, power itself must consistently uphold fairness. Conversely, power that loses fairness has neither moral legitimacy nor political durability. A government that ignores the dignity and self-respect of the citizens who elected it cannot expect to endure.
In recent months, a series of developments in Korea have fueled perceptions that those in power are undermining fairness. Authorities have pursued allegations involving the Unification Church’s provision of money and mobilization of followers to benefit opposition People Power Party (PPP) figures with striking intensity. At the same time, investigations into allegations that ruling Democratic Party politicians received money have been conspicuously muted. The special prosecutors’ office has argued that related testimony does not clearly fall within the scope of its mandate in terms of individuals, materials or timing. Critics, however, ask when Korean prosecutors became such scrupulous guardians against investigating related cases.
On the eve of a closing statement by Yoon Young-ho, a former Unification Church headquarters official who claimed to have provided money to figures on both sides of politics, President Lee Jae Myung said religious groups deserving public condemnation should be dissolved. Opposition figures immediately protested, with former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon calling it an open threat not to reveal names linked to the ruling camp. The presidential office responded that Lee had instructed investigators to act strictly and without regard to party or status. In the end, in a scene likened by critics to a gangster film, Yoon Young-ho named no one, saying nothing for the sake of the “organization.”
The prosecution’s decision to forgo an appeal in the first trial of the Daejang-dong development case has been viewed as an even more egregious breach of fairness. Public suspicion that the move reflected coordination or pressure from the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office or higher authorities is widespread. Abandoning an appeal in a major power-related corruption case amounts to a failure of public duty and a serious erosion of fairness. It also eliminated the possibility of recovering 489.5 billion won (approximately $333 million) in alleged criminal proceeds.
President Lee has been separately indicted alongside private developers, but his first trial was suspended after he took office. The testimony of private defendants on appeal could have affected his own case. By abandoning the appeal altogether, critics argue, prosecutors effectively neutralized a judicial process that should have been governed by fairness.
![President Lee Jae Myung speaks during the 53rd Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, on Dec. 9. At the meeting, Lee said that religious groups that engage in actions deserving public condemnation should be dissolved. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/12/15/f786f1ca-2982-4ac7-a434-94763aae2a05.jpg)
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during the 53rd Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, on Dec. 9. At the meeting, Lee said that religious groups that engage in actions deserving public condemnation should be dissolved. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]
Every collapse of political power in Korea has been preceded by the triggering of the fairness tripwire. Former presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung were undone by questions surrounding the fairness of investigations into their sons. Park Geun-hye was impeached after failing to distinguish between public authority and private influence involving Choi Soon-sil. Moon Jae-in lost public trust by shielding close allies accused of undermining fairness in college admissions. Yoon Suk Yeol, elected largely by young men who prioritized fairness, ultimately self-destructed by blocking investigations into his wife.
Psychologists note that those wounded by perceived unfairness tend to view subsequent actions by the same actor as threatening or conspiratorial, making trust nearly impossible to restore. That is why political power that once touches the tripwire of fairness finds recovery so difficult, especially in a country that prides itself on being a nation where fairness matters most.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)