Allocator-recipient asymmetries in resource allocation preferences: A focus on bequests.

In many financial situations, an allocator divides resources between recipients with different levels of need. We examine how allocators and recipients prefer resources to be allocated between recipients (i.e., the allocators do not benefit from the allocation) in interpersonal contexts. We propose allocator-recipient asymmetries in preferred allocations: the allocator and the higher need recipient weigh equality more heavily than the lower need recipient in their preferred allocations. We document these asymmetries in a familiar and important context: parents allocating bequests between children with varying financial needs. In our experiments, participants in the role of parents, higher need child, or lower need child indicate their preferred bequest allocations. The results show that the proportion of bequests parents allocate to their higher need child and the proportion that child prefers to receive are smaller than the proportion the lower need child wants their parents to allocate to their needier sibling. We further suggest that such asymmetries arise because, in interpersonal contexts (e.g., the context of parental bequests), the allocator and the higher need recipient are more concerned than the lower need recipient about the negative impact of unequal allocation on the relationship between recipients. Supporting this account, these asymmetries diminish in noninterpersonal contexts. Finally, we find that a perspective-taking intervention (i.e., prompting the allocator to consider the lower need recipient's preferences) reduces these asymmetries, leading to allocations that align more closely with the desires of the lower need recipient while enhancing the higher need recipient's financial well-being. Boundary conditions, alternative mechanisms, and implications for models of inequality aversion and social preferences are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).