INEQUITY ANO ASYMMETRY OF CONSEQUENCES IN THE CHOICE BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL ANO SOCIAL CONTlNGENCIES

Abstract

Four experiments were designed to evaluate the effects of equity of consequences versus symmetrical and asymmetrical inequity on preference for individual and social contingencies in situations of competition, competition with proportional gains, partial altruism, and total altruism. Sixteen dyads of students solved puzzles presented on a computer screen. In the experimental phases, each subjectin a dyad observed his or her peer's performance and put pieces in his or her puzzle as well as in the peer's puzzle, After a baseline period, the dyads were exposed in alternation to phases of interchange under conditions of equity and inequity of consequences. The first two phases of inequity were symmetrical, the other two phases were asymmetrical. The results of these experiments confirm that in non-restrictive choice conditions, subjects prefer individual over social contingencies, even when doing so implies obtaining lesser gains. We suggest that the traditional effects of the delivery, size, and distribution of consequences on the acquisition and maintenance of various social interactions depend on the nature of the target response, the criterion that defines the social interaction, and the procedural restrictions used to guarantee the occurrence of simultaneous responses under individual and social contingencies.