Fair Behavior Under Different Distribution Situations Of Development And Its Influencing Factors

Fairness is related to every aspect of our lives,which is the basic rule of human social life and which is the necessary behavioral norms to maintain cooperation.Because the essence of fair behavior is to weigh the personal interests and others,experimental economists and psychologists often use game theory paradigm to study fairness,including the ultimatum game(UG),which is one of the effective tools of measuring fairness preferences.Many studies found that people tended to refuse the free "windfall" based on a fair consideration.So,from the angle of theory and empirical,the predecessors deeply studied the occurrence and development of fair behavior and explored the influence factors of fairness.Civai(2012,2013)proposed that there were three confused points in the UG paradigm and we agreed with it.So on the one hand this study avoided the three confusions,on the other hand this study based on the theoretical model of intention and income and investigated the fair behavior of different ages in different distribution situations,in order to explore the development of fairness and analyze the influence factors.This research mainly consisted of three experiments.Using the original separation paradigm,the first experiment presented three distribution situations to separate the effects of intention,comparative payoffs and absolute payoffs on the fair decisions of adult responders.The three situations were the anonymous distribution situation,random number generator(RNG)distribution situation and computer distribution situation.Based on this successful separation design,the second experiment recruited younger children,older children and teenagers to further analysis the effects of intention,comparative payoffs and absolute payoffs on the fair decisions with difference ages.The third experiment set up four distribution situations which were the disadvantage game,the advantage game,the conflict game and the third party game,in order to discuss the development of fair criteria of children.In the first and second experiment it was found that:(1)younger children tended to accept all the offers.(2)compared with other age groups,older children’s rejection rates in three distribution situations were significantly more,so was that for most offer types.(3)teenagers’ rejection times on 2/8 and 3/7 offers had significant difference in different distribution situations.The rejection times on 2/8 offer in the anonym distribution situation were significantly more than that in the random number generator distribution situation.The rejection times on 2/8 and 3/7 offers in the computer distribution situation were significantly over zero.(4)adults’ rejection times on 1/9,2/8 and 3/7 offers had significantly difference in different distribution situations.The rejection times on 1/9 and 2/8 offers in the random number generator distribution situation were significantly more than that in the computer distribution situation.The rejection times on 3/7 offer in the anonym distribution situation were significantly more than that in the random number generator distribution situation.The rejection times on 1/9,2/8 and 3/7 offers in the computer distribution situation were significantly over zero.It was indicated that younger children made decision based on self-interest,and they could hardly resist the attraction of absolute payoffs,while older children began to consider about comparative payoffs,and they could resist the attraction of absolute payoffs and pay attention to proposer’s intention.Teenagers were in the period of paying attention to proposer’s intention and they made decision according to intention and absolute payoffs,whereas fairness in adults was affected by intention,comparative payoffs and absolute payoffs.In the third experiment it showed that:(1)all the age groups tended to chose fair option rather than disadvantage option on disadvantage game of self task;(2)the number of 8 year-old and 10 year-old children who chose fair option was respectively significantly more than advantage option on advantage game of self task,but there was no significant difference for 4 and 6 year-old children;(3)the number of 4 and 6 year-old children who chose self-interest option was significantly more than altruism option on conflict game of self task;but there was no significant difference for 8 and 10 year-old children;(4)the number of 8 and 10 year-old children who chose fair option was significantly more than unfair option on the third-party task,but there was no significant difference for 4 and 6 year-old children.The third experiment demonstrated that 4 and 6 year-old children gave priority to self-interest consideration.When they made a decision for others,they did not adhere to the principle of fairness.Children as young as eight were at the turning point of acquiring the concept of fairness.8 and 10 year-old children considered fair principle as criteria to make decisions and showed a tendency of altruism.