The impact of inequality on social value orientation: An eye-tracking study

Qian-Hui Wang ¹ Zi-Han Wei ² Wan-Ning Chen ¹ Yu Na ¹ Hui-Ming Gou ³ Hong-Zhi Liu ^1,4*

• ¹ Department of Social Psychology, Zhouenlai School of Government, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
• ² Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China
• ³ College of Cyber Science, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
• ⁴ Laboratory of Behavioral Economics and Policy Simulation, Tianjin, China

Researchers have developed the framework of social value orientation (SVO) to describe individuals' prosocial tendencies. However, existing tools for measuring SVO lack sufficient attention to the effect of option inequality, driven by the inequality-aversion motive. In this research, we conducted an eye-tracking experiment to compare the traditional SVO measure with the inequality-controlled condition. We found that SVOs were lower when the fairness of options was controlled, indicating that traditional SVO measures may overestimate individuals' altruistic tendencies. We also found that information processing, including complexity, depth, and direction, varied when the fairness of options was controlled, demonstrating the role of inequality evaluation in SVO measurements. In addition, the predictive effect of relative time advantage becomes stronger when controlling for the option inequality, suggesting that controlling for option inequality enhances bottom-up information processing. Our findings indicate that existing tools for measuring SVO may lead to biases due to a lack of control over option inequality. This study provides insights into the potential role of fairness in future SVO measurements and sheds light on the underlying process mechanisms.