Group Harmony and Interpersonal Fairness in Reward Allocation: On the Loci of the Moderation Effect

Abstract

Goals of group harmony and interpersonal fairness in reward allocation are believed to invoke use of the equality and equity rules, respectively. The present research tested the hypotheses that the allocation rule is subtraction, and that the moderation effect of the goal of group harmony arises from response distortions on the reward scale, cognitive distortions of the inputs given, or both. Participants from India divided monetary reward between two persons “fairly” and in a way that can “minimize group conflict.” There were two inputs about each person—effort and performance (Experiment I) or performance over 2 years (Experiments II–IV). Data of majority of the participants conformed to the requirements of the subtractive model. Patterns in the moderation effect across the raw and monotonically rescaled data of individual participants further indicated that the response distortions, input distortions, and response-input distortions are the most, moderate, and least frequent responses to the goal of group harmony, respectively. These findings not only confirm the subtractive model but also offer a new view on the loci of the moderation effect in reward allocation.