Fairness and the Provision of Public Goods

SES-0925165 Barry Markovsky南卡罗来纳州大学该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案公法111-5）资助的。该项目调查公共产品设置中的公平感。在这些社会环境中，参与者选择是否为有益于每个人的事情做出贡献，但无论他们是否做出贡献，所有人都能平等受益。理性选择理论通常根据激励结构来模拟这种情况下出现合作的条件。本研究采用公平知觉理论？多层次正义理论？来预测公平因素如何引导关键的判断和选择。个人认为，在公共物品设置的公平判断是至关重要的，因为集体利益是否能够维持取决于个人选择的聚合。PI将进行三个实验来测试来自多层次正义理论的假设。研究1测试了贡献的显著特征对群体的影响，具体来说，贡献是以绝对数量还是以比例来衡量的？的资源。公平的判断和随后的决定假设有很大的差异，根据框架的贡献。研究2对待亚组，而不是个人，作为决策单位，但在其他方面复制的第一项研究？的设计和假设。研究3考察了两种群体取向因素对个体正义观的影响：社会认同（感觉是大群体的一部分）和社会价值取向（关于自我和他人之间资源分配的偏好）。基于先前的研究，假设这将是一个互动的效果，即群体认同发挥次要作用的社会价值取向。 更广泛的影响：在社会学、心理学、经济学和政治学领域，采用公共物品环境的研究越来越多，因为它与许多现实世界的现象有关，例如，推动社会运动和维持公共教育系统。 这项研究结合了社会困境和正义，并有可能为税收，环境政策，执法和国际关系等问题提供政策信息。 调查结果也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.