When allocating resources, people often have to resolve a conflict between equity and efficiency concerns. That is, sometimes for everyone to receive the same amount of resources, some resources must be used suboptimally. However, it is unclear whether and how people account for the impact their allocation decisions would have on the recipients' outcome. In three experiments, we examine how the amount of resources allocated to the recipients influences allocators' decisions and use mouse tracking techniques to assess their conflict during the decision process. The results reveal that when an equitable allocation of resources led to neither recipients receiving anything nor imposed losses, people tended to prefer efficient allocations. Such allocations between recipients who may end up with no resources also evoke a greater conflict compared with allocations in which both recipients have some secured gains, suggesting that, in general, people want to be equitable but not when equity means that nobody gets anything. When maintaining equity can only be done by leaving recipients with no resources at all, equitable allocations evoke a greater conflict, and people are more likely to refrain from them.

中文翻译：

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丢下东西：人们何时会遇到公平与效率的冲突？

在分配资源时，人们通常必须解决公平与效率问题之间的冲突。也就是说，有时对于每个人来说，获得相同数量的资源时，必须以最佳方式使用某些资源。但是，目前尚不清楚人们是否以及如何考虑他们的分配决定对接收者结果的影响。在三个实验中，我们检查了分配给接收者的资源量如何影响分配者的决策，并使用鼠标跟踪技术来评估他们在决策过程中的冲突。结果表明，当公平地分配资源导致接收者既没有收到任何东西也没有造成损失时，人们倾向于使用有效的分配。与两个接收者都有一定收益的分配相比，最终可能没有资源的接收者之间的这种分配也引发了更大的冲突，这表明，总的来说，人们希望人们是公平的，但当公平意味着没有人得到任何东西时，人们就不希望这样做。当只能通过让接收者完全没有资源来维持公平时，公平的分配会引发更大的冲突，人们更有可能避免这种冲突。