The Preference for Equity When Judging the Attractiveness and Fairness of an Allocator: The Role of Familiarity and Culture

1985/10/01 by Gerardo Marín · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Cultural Differences and Values #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Social and Intergroup Psychology

paper · doi:10.1080/00224545.1985.9712027

openalex publication_date 1985/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

The present study tested the effect of familiarity between allocator and recipients on liking for an allocator and on the choice of a distribution norm. Subjects were college students from Indonesia (n = 46) and the United States (n = 44) who answered a short questionnaire. All respondents—irrespective of sex, nationality, and level of friendship between allocator and recipient—preferred an equitable over an egalitarian allocator. An equitable allocation was also perceived as fairer than one based on equality. When subjects were asked to distribute rewards, they chose with greater frequency the equity norm.

Citations

• Equity, Equality, and Need: What Determines Which Value Will Be Used as the Basis of Distributive Justice?
• Social comparison and group interest in ingroup favouritism
• Advances In Experimental Social Psychology

Cited by

• Organizational Justice Across Cultures: A Systematic Review of Four Decades of Research and Some Directions for the Future