Minimizing inequality versus maximizing joint gains: On the relation between personality traits and different prosocial motivations

•Inequality Aversion and Joint Gain Maximization are opposing prosocial motivations.•We investigated the relation of these motivations with (basic) personality traits.•We consider whether inequality is initially advantageous for the self or the other.•Honesty-Humility was positively related to inequ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of research in personality Vol. 81; pp. 153 - 157
Main Authors: Mischkowski, Dorothee, Thielmann, Isabel, Glöckner, Andreas
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Inc 01.08.2019
Subjects:
HEXACO
Honesty-Humility
Inequality Aversion
Joint Gain Maximization
Social Value Orientation
Joint Gain Maximization
HEXACO
Honesty-Humility
Social Value Orientation
Inequality Aversion
ISSN:0092-6566
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Summary:•Inequality Aversion and Joint Gain Maximization are opposing prosocial motivations.•We investigated the relation of these motivations with (basic) personality traits.•We consider whether inequality is initially advantageous for the self or the other.•Honesty-Humility was positively related to inequality aversion.•The relation was (slightly) stronger when inequality was advantageous for the self. The Social Value Orientation (SVO) Slider Measure allows a differentiation between two prosocial motivations: minimizing inequality versus maximizing joint gains. In two studies (N = 1202), we investigated the relation between this suggested continuum from Inequality Aversion (IA) to Joint Gain Maximization (JGM), the HEXACO personality dimensions, and SVO. To account for differences in fairness perception, we also considered whether inequality favored oneself or the other. As hypothesized, Honesty-Humility was the best basic trait predictor of IA, showing a slightly stronger positive link when inequality was self-advantageous. SVO, in turn, showed a stronger (negative) link when inequality was disadvantageous for the self. Overall, the results show that IA is related to (basic) personality traits in a theoretically meaningful way.
ISSN:0092-6566
DOI:10.1016/j.jrp.2019.06.001