Chinese and Americans agree on what is fair, but disagree on what is best in societal decisions affecting health and safety risks

Through surveys of students and junior professionals and interviews with bu siness and government executives, we studied Chinese choices and fairness p erceptions in risky health and safety decisions. The survey responses were compared with American responses from an earlier study by Keller and Sarin. The survey results show that the American and Chinese respondents had simil ar fairness perceptions, but the Chinese did not make decisions that were c onsistent with their fairness perceptions, whereas the Americans did. We fo und that the middle-age Chinese professionals tended to make choices that w ere more different from the Americans than were the choices of the young Ch inese management students. It is likely that these discrepancies were cause d by cultural differences, with the younger Chinese tending to face a stron ger Western influence. The insights from the survey results were enriched by interviews that revea led fairness perceptions of Chinese business and government executives. A f ramework to interpret cultural influences on decision making was also propo sed.