Causal Explanation of Performance Differences and Allocations Among Friends

Summary

In the study of the link between laymen's causal explanation of performance differences and allocation decisions, 12 male and 12 female “Gymnasium” students were required to allocate a profit between two hypothetical persons, described as friends, who had produced that profit through joint work. In contrast to theoretical statements which predict equal allocations among friends, we predicted unequal allocations for cases in which the performance differences between producers were explainable through effort differences (as opposed to ability differences).

Results confirm this hypothesis: 58% of Ss allocated gains unequally when performance differences were explainable by effort differences; allocations were significantly more unequal in this condition than when performance differences were explainable by differences in ability (p < .05). Results also show that in these cases (performance explained by effort) the extent of allocational inequality covaried with the extent to which the more diligent team member was seen as causally important for outcome production (p < .05). The study demonstrates the usefulness of an attributional approach to questions of distributive justice.