Deciding Who Gets What, Fairly

Journal of Consumer Research · 2018 · Volume 45 · Issue 4

Abstract

Goods and services are often allocated to those who spend the most resources. In many cases, this results in allocation to people who spend the most money. But people can use a variety of other resources to acquire things (e.g., time, effort, social capital). Why might some resources seem fairer to use than others? In this research, we show that people believe resources systematically differ according to how well they signal preferences (e.g., money spent seems like a worse signal of want or need than does time or effort spent) and that allocation policies seem fairer if they are based on resources that clearly signal preferences. We explore several factors that influence beliefs about preference signaling, and we explain how these intuitions shape support for business practices and public policies.

Keywords

fairness, allocation, markets, judgment and decision making, public policy

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