Reward Allocation by Impartial Allocators to Friend or Stranger Co-workers under Equal and Unequal Ability and Performance

The effects of a relationship variable (friends, strangers), an ability variable (equal, unequal), and a performance variable (equal, unequal) were studied in 40 male and 40 female university students. Eight versions of a hypothetical vignette were prepared to manipulate the eight treatment combinations. After reading an assigned vignette, subjects were asked to allocate $90 between two stranger or friend co-workers. Among other effects, the Relationship by Ability by Performance interaction was significant. The stranger, unequal ability, unequal performance allocations to the lower ability co-worker were significantly higher than the stranger, equal ability, unequal performance allocations, and the stranger, unequal ability, unequal performance allocations were higher than the friends, unequal ability, unequal performance allocations; this difference approached significance (p < .06). The questionnaire data revealed that, despite having favored strangers, the impartial allocators expected strangers to be less satisfied with their distribution than friends with their distribution. In this study, impartial allocators tended to compensate strangers to a greater extent for low performance or ability than friends or, alternatively, were more likely to ignore performance and ability differences between strangers than between friends.