School of Psychology, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, 02841, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2024 Aug 24;14(1):19704. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-70225-9.
The equitable allocation of resources has long been a central concern for humanity, prompting extensive research into various motivations that drive the pursuit of distributive justice. In contrast to one of the most fundamental motives, inequality aversion, a conflicting motive has been proposed: rank-reversal aversion. However, it remains unclear whether this rank-reversal aversion persists in the presence of self-rank. Here we provide evidence of rank-reversal aversion in the first-party context and explore diverse moral strategies for distribution. In a modified version of the redistribution game involving 55 online-recruited participants, we observed rank-reversal aversion only when one's rank was maintained. When participants' self-rank was altered, they tended to base their behavior on their new ranks. This behavioral tendency varied among individuals, revealing three distinct moral strategies, all incorporating considerations of rank-reversal. Our findings suggest that rank-reversal aversion can indeed influence one's distribution behavior, although the extent of its impact may vary among individuals, especially when self-rank is a factor. These insights can be extended to political and economic domains, contributing to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of distributive justice.
资源的公平分配一直是人类关注的核心问题，促使人们对推动分配正义的各种动机进行了广泛的研究。与最基本的动机之一——不平等厌恶相反，人们提出了一种冲突的动机：等级逆转厌恶。然而，在存在自我等级的情况下，这种等级逆转厌恶是否仍然存在尚不清楚。在这里，我们在第一方情境中提供了等级逆转厌恶的证据，并探讨了不同的分配道德策略。在涉及 55 名在线招募参与者的再分配游戏的修改版本中，我们仅在维持一个人的等级时观察到等级逆转厌恶。当参与者的自我等级发生变化时，他们往往会根据自己的新等级来决定自己的行为。这种行为倾向因人而异，揭示了三种不同的道德策略，都包含了对等级逆转的考虑。我们的研究结果表明，等级逆转厌恶确实会影响一个人的分配行为，尽管其影响程度因人而异，尤其是当自我等级是一个因素时。这些见解可以扩展到政治和经济领域，有助于更深入地理解分配正义的潜在机制。
