How many pennies for your pain? Willingness to compensate as a function of expected future interaction and intentionality feedback

Desmet, P. and Leunissen, J.M. (2014) How many pennies for your pain? Willingness to compensate as a function of expected future interaction and intentionality feedback. Journal of Economic Psychology, 43, 105-113. (doi:10.1016/j.joep.2014.05.002).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Despite increased research efforts in the area of reconciliation and trust repair in
economic relations, most studies depart from a victim’s perspective and evaluate the process of
trust repair by looking at the impact of restoration tactics on victims’ reactions. We focused on
the transgressor’s perspective and present findings from two studies that investigated how the
amount of compensation that a transgressor is willing to pay depends on victims’ reactions to the
transgression (i.e. whether they claim the transgression happened intentionally or
unintentionally) and the time horizon of the relationship between the transgressor and the victim
(future vs. no future interaction). We hypothesized and found that transgressors are willing to
pay less compensation to a victim who believes the transgression happened intentionally (as
opposed to unintentionally), but only so when they share no future interaction perspective
together. When transgressors have a future interaction perspective with the victim, intentionality
feedback does not affect compensation size.