PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This paper asks how two structural conditions of an interview situation – the presence of the interviewer and the use of incentives – influence the preferences towards inequality. According to goal-framing theory and the findings of empirical justice research, different goal frames are activated in different types of relationships, producing different distributional preferences: A normative goal frame results in a stronger preference for equality in cooperative situations whereas a gain frame favors inequality in competitive situations. We assume the former type of relationship to be established by the presence of an interviewer, and the latter type to be established by incentivizing. Two experimental studies test our hypotheses. The results suggest that generating a collaborative relationship through interviewer presence and cooperation priming leads to a preference for equality in comparison to a neutral, competitive, or exchange situation using competitive priming techniques. The use of incentives generates a clear preference for inequality.