| Abstract: | Undergraduate judges were asked to "fairly" allocate salaries to hypothetical faculty members on the basis of their merit ratings. Individual merit ratings, total budgets to be distributed, and distributions of merit ratings for the entire group were manipulated. In another set of studies, undergraduate judges were asked to "fairly" assign income taxes to hypothetical persons given their salaries, and individual salaries, amounts of revenue to generate, and distributions of salaries for the group were varied. Overall results are explained by a theory of relative equity that suggests that an equitable state is one in which the relative position of a stimulus (e.g., merit or salary) in the distribution of stimuli matches the relative position of the response (e.g., salary or tax) in the distribution of responses. The relative position of a stimulus or response is defined as its range-frequency value based on the range-frequency compromise. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
