PROTESTANT ETHIC ENDORSEMENT AND THE FAIRNESS OF EQUITY INPUTS

Two studies are reported which show how endorsement of the Protestant ethic is related to the perceived fairness of using various equity inputs. In Experiment 1, male undergraduates scoring high and low on the Protestant Ethic (PE) Scale made salary decisions for hypothetical workers who differed with respect to their performance quantity and duration. High PEs paid workers in proportion to their total productivity by taking into account both quantity and duration. However, low PEs ignored differences in quantity by paying workers the same amount, but did pay in proportion to duration. In the follow-up study, high PEs reported that it is fairer to base reward on performance when differences are attributable to internal causes than external causes, while the reverse was found for low PEs. © 1979.