Fairness and the Provision of Public Goods | Grant

SOUTH CAROLINA RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Grant: $134,921 - National Science Foundation - Jul. 30, 2009

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Award Description: Fairness and the Provision of Public Goods Project Summary The proposed research tests a theory of fairness perceptions in social dilemma contexts. People face social dilemmas every day, such as weighing the temptation to cheat on taxes or to toss a plastic bottle in a handy trash bin rather than carrying it to a receptacle for recycling. Social dilemmas are especially interesting for studying fairness judgments because individual and collective interests are at odds, and thus cooperation is problematic. While rational choice theories help to define the cooperation problem by examining the incentive structures of social dilemmas, a multilevel justice theory can show how fairness considerations guide critical judgments and responses that are likely to affect the actions of individuals and subgroups, and ultimately whether all will succeed or fail to achieve collective benefits.Our research applies justice theory to public goods settings, a particularly interesting kind of social dilemma. In such settings, group members make decisions regarding contributions to a group resource which, in turn, provides equal benefits to all members. We are proposing to conduct three experiments,each investigating different hypotheses derived from multilevel justice theory. Study 1 will test for the effects of salient features of contributions to the group, i.e., whether there is an emphasis on contributing large absolute amounts or high proportions of ones endowments. The justice theory predicts a powerful effect on justice evaluations and subsequent cooperation based on subtle differences in the way properties of contributions are made salient. Study 2 draws on micro-macro bridging features of multilevel justice theory by treating subgroups, rather than individuals, as the units of analysis. In its design and hypotheses,Study 2 replicates Study 1. However, scaling-up from individual to collective actors represents a heretofore untested extension that, if successful, allows the theory to be generalized in important ways.Finally, Study 3 looks at the effects of two kinds of group-related factors on individual justice conceptions: group identification (feeling part of the larger group) and social value orientationthe extent to which an individual takes both his or her own outcome and others outcomes into consideration in interdependent decision-making. Based on previous research, we predict an interaction effect whereby social identity plays a secondary role to social value orientation.Intellectual merit of the proposed activity. The proposed research provides a rigorous and explicit bridge between two longstanding traditions in sociological social psychology. The effect of building formal connections between two theoretical traditions is synergistic and potentially transformativeboth insofar as greatly extending the potential applications now covered by both, and more generally by showing what can be accomplished by invoking small, strategic changes in well-formed sociological theories and research paradigms. The argument combines elements of social cognitions and social structures to derive precise but broadly-applicable hypotheses for individual and group effects. There are several firsts, in particular the application of justice theory to a social dilemma setting, the extension to supra-individual units of analysis, and the examination of the interplay between group identification and social value orientation. Broader impacts resulting from the proposed activity. The proposed work tests theories under controlled conditions but, as prior research has shown, their relevance extends beyond the laboratory to avariety of natural settings. Theories that apply to social dilemma settings are being used increasingly in sociology, psychology, economics and political science because of their applicability to many real-world problems. Incorporating justice evaluations can only make such applications more comprehensive and precise.

Project Description: As defined in the Award Description field.

Jobs Summary: Graduate Research Assistant (Total jobs reported: 1)

Project Status: Not Started

This award's data was last updated on Jul. 30, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.