Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Zachary Michaelson

Titel

Biases in choices about fairness: Psychology and economic inequality

Ist Teil von

• Judgment and decision making, 2015-03, Vol.10, p.198-203

Ort / Verlag

Cambridge University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Free E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paper investigates choices about “distributional fairness” (sometimes called “distributive justice”), i.e., selection of the proper way for resources to be distributed in group. The study finds evidence that several of the same biases of risky decision making also apply to choices about distributional fairness, in particular focusing on the key biases that lead to prospect theory. This finding is achieved by introducing a novel thought experiment regarding the fairness of resource distributions, then manipulating the percentage of individuals who gain or lose in these distributions, and changing the sizes of gains and losses. Shared biases may mean similar heuristics are being employed. The mechanism behind this result leaves room for future exploration, as do the implications of the finding for related applications in inequality research.