EQUITY, RECIPROCITY, AND REALLOCATING REWARDS IN DYAD

Proposed that a member of a dyad who is under- or overrewarded by his partner will be motivated to reciprocate and restore equity. However, if under- or overrewarded by chance, he will be motivated only to restore equity. Consequently, an inequitable division of reward which is intentionally produced by the member's partner will arouse a stronger reallocation response than an inequitable division which occurs by chance. 54 male undergraduates were Ss. Results were as expected and varying the cause of enequity did not affect the extent to which underrewarded Ss increased their share of reward, suggesting the presence of forces which inhibit overt retaliatory reciprocation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.