Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India

Groups make decisions on both the production and the distribution of resources. These decisions typically involve a tension between increasing the total level of group resources (i.e. social efficiency) and distributing these resources among group members (i.e. individuals’ relative shares). This is...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Capraro, Valerio, Corgnet, Brice, Espín, Antonio M., Hernan-Gonzalez, Roberto
Format: Article
Published: Royal Society 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40421/
_version_ 1848796052240465920
author Capraro, Valerio
Corgnet, Brice
Espín, Antonio M.
Hernan-Gonzalez, Roberto
author_facet Capraro, Valerio
Corgnet, Brice
Espín, Antonio M.
Hernan-Gonzalez, Roberto
author_sort Capraro, Valerio
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Groups make decisions on both the production and the distribution of resources. These decisions typically involve a tension between increasing the total level of group resources (i.e. social efficiency) and distributing these resources among group members (i.e. individuals’ relative shares). This is the case because the redistribution process may destroy part of the resources, thus resulting in socially inefficient allocations. Here we apply a dual-process approach to understand the cognitive underpinnings of this fundamental tension. We conducted a set of experiments to examine the extent to which different allocation decisions respond to intuition or deliberation. In a newly developed approach, we assess intuition and deliberation at both the trait level (using the Cognitive Reflection Test, henceforth CRT) and the state level (through the experimental manipulation of response times). To test for robustness, experiments were conducted in two countries: the US and India. Despite absolute level differences across countries, in both locations we show that: (i) time pressure and low CRT scores are associated with individuals’ concerns for their relative shares; (ii) time delay and high CRT scores are associated with individuals’ concerns for social efficiency. These findings demonstrate that deliberation favours social efficiency by overriding individuals’ intuitive tendency to focus on relative shares.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:41:51Z
format Article
id nottingham-40421
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:41:51Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Royal Society
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-404212020-05-04T18:34:35Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40421/ Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India Capraro, Valerio Corgnet, Brice Espín, Antonio M. Hernan-Gonzalez, Roberto Groups make decisions on both the production and the distribution of resources. These decisions typically involve a tension between increasing the total level of group resources (i.e. social efficiency) and distributing these resources among group members (i.e. individuals’ relative shares). This is the case because the redistribution process may destroy part of the resources, thus resulting in socially inefficient allocations. Here we apply a dual-process approach to understand the cognitive underpinnings of this fundamental tension. We conducted a set of experiments to examine the extent to which different allocation decisions respond to intuition or deliberation. In a newly developed approach, we assess intuition and deliberation at both the trait level (using the Cognitive Reflection Test, henceforth CRT) and the state level (through the experimental manipulation of response times). To test for robustness, experiments were conducted in two countries: the US and India. Despite absolute level differences across countries, in both locations we show that: (i) time pressure and low CRT scores are associated with individuals’ concerns for their relative shares; (ii) time delay and high CRT scores are associated with individuals’ concerns for social efficiency. These findings demonstrate that deliberation favours social efficiency by overriding individuals’ intuitive tendency to focus on relative shares. Royal Society 2017-02-15 Article PeerReviewed Capraro, Valerio, Corgnet, Brice, Espín, Antonio M. and Hernan-Gonzalez, Roberto (2017) Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India. Royal Society Open Science . ISSN 2054-5703 Efficiency equality dual process models intuition deliberation. doi:10.1098/rsos.160605 doi:10.1098/rsos.160605
spellingShingle Efficiency
equality
dual process models
intuition
deliberation.
Capraro, Valerio
Corgnet, Brice
Espín, Antonio M.
Hernan-Gonzalez, Roberto
Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India
title Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India
title_full Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India
title_fullStr Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India
title_full_unstemmed Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India
title_short Deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from US and India
title_sort deliberation favours social efficiency by making people disregard their relative shares: evidence from us and india
topic Efficiency
equality
dual process models
intuition
deliberation.
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40421/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/40421/