When Foul Play Seems Fair: Exploring the Link between Just Deserts and Honesty

Fabio Galeotti (1) , Reuben Kline (2) , Raimondello Orsini (3)

1 GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne
2 SBU - Stony Brook University [SUNY]
3 DAIS - Computer Science

The distributive justice norm of " just deserts " — i.e. the notion that one gets what one deserves — is an essential norm in a market society, and honesty is an important factor in economic and social exchange. We experimentally investigate the effect of violations of the distributive justice norm of " just deserts " on honesty in a setting where behaving dishonestly entails income redistribution. We find that the violation of the just deserts norm results in a greater propensity toward dishonesty. We then test a more general proposition that violations of just deserts induce dishonesty, even in cases where dishonesty does not have redistributive consequences. Our results confirm this proposition but only for cases in which the v iolation of just deserts also entails income inequality. Abstract The distributive justice norm of " just deserts " —i.e. the notion that one gets what

Mots clés: Meritocracy; Equity; Dishonesty; Just Deserts; Experiment

Domaines: Economies et finances

Fabio Galeotti, Reuben Kline, Raimondello Orsini. When Foul Play Seems Fair: Exploring the Link between Just Deserts and Honesty . 2017. ⟨halshs-01579214⟩