Fairness and the Provision of Public Goods

南卡罗来纳州巴里·马尔科夫斯基大学该奖项是根据《美国复苏和再投资法案》(2009年公法111-5)资助的。该项目调查公共产品环境中的公平认知。在这些社会背景下，参与者选择是否为使每个人都受益的事情做出贡献，但无论他们是否做出贡献，所有人都能平等受益。理性选择理论通常以激励结构为基础，对在这样的背景下出现合作的条件进行建模。本研究运用公平感知理论--多层次正义理论--来预测公平因素如何指导批判性判断和选择。个人认为，在公共产品环境中，公平判断是至关重要的，因为集体利益能否得到维护取决于个人选择的聚合。PI将进行三个实验，以检验源自多层次正义理论的假设。研究一检验贡献对群体的显著特征的影响，特别是，贡献是以绝对数量表示的，还是以S资源的比例表示的。公平判断和随后的决定假定根据捐款的框架有很大的不同。研究2将亚群而不是个体作为决策单位，但在其他方面重复了第一个研究--S的设计和假设。研究三考察了两种群体取向因素对个体正义观的影响：社会认同(感觉是更大群体的一部分)和社会价值取向(关于资源在自我和他人之间分配的偏好)。在前人研究的基础上，假设群体认同将是一种互动效应，群体认同在社会价值取向中起次要作用。更广泛的影响：在社会学、心理学、经济学和政治学领域，使用公共物品背景的研究正在增加，因为它与许多现实世界现象有关，例如，启动社会运动和维持公共教育系统。这项研究将社会困境和正义结合在一起，有可能为税收、环境政策、执法和国际关系等问题的政策提供信息。调查结果还将有助于更好地了解公众对新政府计划的反应。

SES-0925165Barry MarkovskyUniversity of South Carolina This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Public Law 111-5).This project investigates fairness perceptions in public goods settings. These are social contexts in which participants choose whether or not to contribute to something that benefits everyone, but all benefit equally regardless of whether they contribute. Rational choice theories typically model the conditions for the emergence of cooperation in such contexts based on the structure of incentives. This research employs a theory of fairness perceptions?multilevel justice theory?to predict how fairness considerations guide critical judgments and choices. Individuals believe fairness judgments are critical in public goods settings because whether or not the collective benefit can be maintained depends on the aggregation of the individual choices. The PI will conduct three experiments to test hypotheses derived from multilevel justice theory. Study 1 tests the effects of salient features of contributions to the group, specifically, whether contributions are framed as absolute amounts or as proportions of one?s resources. Fairness judgments and subsequent decisions are hypothesized to vary considerably based on the framing of contributions. Study 2 treats subgroups, rather than individuals, as the decision-making units but otherwise replicates the first study?s design and hypotheses. Study 3 looks at the effects of two kinds of group orientation factors on individual justice conceptions: social identification (feeling part of the larger group) and social value orientation (preferences regarding the distribution of resources between self and others). Based on previous research, it is hypothesized that will be an interaction effect whereby group identification plays a secondary role to social value orientation. Broader Impacts: Research employing public goods settings is increasing in the fields of sociology, psychology, economics and political science because of its relevance to many real-world phenomena, e.g., priming social movements and maintaining public education systems. This research combines social dilemmas and justice and has the potential to inform policy on issues such as taxation, environmental policy, law enforcement, and international relations. Findings will also contribute to a better understanding of public reactions to the new government programs.