Testing theories of fairness— Intentions matter Armin Falk, Ernst Fehr, Urs Fischbacher February 26, 2015

Research Question • Do fair-minded people respond to fair or unfair intentions, or do they respond solely to fair or unfair outcomes?

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Why is it interesting? • Examining the most controversial question in the modelling of fairness preferences: the role of fairness intentions • Great practical and theoretical interest – Theoretical level: Not only concerns the proper modeling of fairness preferences, but also standard utility theory – Practical level: decisions are likely to be affected if the attribution of intentions matters 3

Contribution of the paper • No prevailing evidence in the attribution of fairness intentions • This paper provides experimental evidence for the behavioral relevance of fairness attributions – Allow for attribution of fairness intentions in both the domains of negatively and positively reciprocal behavior – Experimental design with and without attribution of fairness intentions

• Examines whether positive and negative reciprocity is correlated at the level of the individual 4

Experimental design and procedures • Based on the “moonlighting game” – two-player sequential move game that consists of two stages • Both players are endowed with 12 points. • A can give and take while B can reward or sanction • Can examine the impact of fairness intentions on both positively and negatively reciprocal responses at the individual level

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Experimental design and procedures: The constituent game Player A • Player A chooses an action a ∈ {−6,−5, . . . , 5, 6} in the first stage. • If A chooses a  0, he gives player B a tokens while if he chooses a