IMPLICIT JUSTIFICATIONS AND SELF-SERVING GROUP ALLOCATIONS

In comparison to allocating resources to oneself, when allocating reso urces to one's group, people are able to 'get away with' taking more t han a fair and equal share because there exists an implicit justificat ion that fellow group members will benefit. Such an implicit justifica tion enables people to hide their self-serving motivation. Results rev eal that subjects allocating a sum of money between their group and a competing group took a significantly greater share of the resource tha n subjects allocating between themselves and a competing individual. W hether the allocation was made public or kept private had a significan t impact on this relationship: the difference between group and self a llocations was significantly greater when the allocation was made publ ic than when kept private. However, subjects allocating only to themse lves and in private were almost as self-serving as subjects allocating to their group (both in private and in public). The only case where s ubjects were overly constrained by equality was when they were allocat ing to only themselves and the allocation was made public. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.