Abstract
Compensation is a kind of pro-social behavior that can restore a social relationship jeopardized by interpersonal transgression. The effectiveness of a certain compensation strategy (e.g., repaying money, sharing loss, etc.) may vary as a function of the social norm/relationship. Previous studies have shown that two types of norms (or relationships), monetary/exchange and social/communal, differentially characterize people’s appraisal of and response to social exchanges. In this study, we investigated how individual differences in preference for these norms affect individuals’ perception of others’ as well as the selection of their own reciprocal behaviors. In a two-phase experiment with interpersonal transgression, we asked the participant to perform a dot-estimation task with two partners who occasionally and unintentionally inflicted noise stimulation upon the participant (first phase). As compensation one partner gave money to the participant 80% of the time (the monetary partner) and the other bore the noise for the participant 80% of the time (the social partner). Results showed that the individuals’ preference for compensation (repaying money versus bearing noise) affected their relationship (exchange versus communal) with the partners adopting different compensation strategies: participants tended to form communal relationships and felt closer to the partner whose compensation strategy matched their own preference. The participants could be differentiated into a social group, who tended to form communal relationship with the social partner, and a monetary group, who tended to form communal relationship with the monetary partner. In the second phase of the experiment, when the participants became transgressors and were asked to compensate for their transgression with money, the social group offered more compensation to the social partners than to the monetary partners, while the monetary group compensated less than the social group in general and showed no difference in their offers to the monetary and social partners. These findings demonstrate that the effectiveness of compensation varies as a function of individuals’ preference for communal versus monetary norm and that monetary compensation alone does not heal all wounds.
Highlights
What would you do if you forgot your mother’s birthday? You may feel guilty and make up for this by spending more time with her (de Hooge et al, 2011)
The transgressor may try to restore the relationship with the victim via certain forms of compensation
The individual differences in preference for compensation had an impact on the victim’s perceived social distance toward the transgressors and had an impact on the victim’s subsequent reciprocal behaviors toward the transgressors
Summary
What would you do if you forgot your mother’s birthday? You may feel guilty and make up for this by spending more time with her (de Hooge et al, 2011). What would you do if you forgot your mother’s birthday? Compensation following social/interpersonal transgression helps to restore the threatened social relationship and reinstate social justice (Baumeister et al, 1994). There are many forms of compensation, such as monetary compensation and liability sharing. Different types of compensation are not effective in restoring the jeopardized relationship in all social contexts. Your disappointed mother in the above example will not be happier if you pay her for forgetting her birthday. If you break a vase in a souvenir shop, it is better to pay rather than just make an apology (at least in some cultures). What are the factors that influence the effectiveness of compensation? What might be the factors that influence the effectiveness of monetary/material compensation? What is the optimal way to compensate the survivors of holocaust or the victims of racial discrimination? Can money heal all wounds? If not, what might be the factors that influence the effectiveness of monetary/material compensation?
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