Too Lucky to Be True: Fairness Views under the Shadow of Cheating

Stefania Bortolotti, Ivan Soraperra, Matthias Sutter and Claudia Zoller
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Stefania Bortolotti: University of Bologna & IZA
Ivan Soraperra: Center for Humans and Machines, Max Planck Institute for Human Development Berlin
Matthias Sutter: Center for Humans and Machines, Max Planck Institute for Human Development Berlin
Claudia Zoller: Management Center Innsbruck

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2025, vol. 107, issue 3, 771-785

Abstract: Income inequalities within societies are often associated with evidence that the rich are more likely to behave unethically and evade more taxes. We study how fairness views and preferences for redistribution are affected when cheating may, but need not, be the cause of income inequalities. In our experiment, we let third parties redistribute income between a rich and a poor stakeholder. In one treatment, income inequality was due only to luck, whereas in two others rich stakeholders might have cheated. The mere suspicion of cheating changes third parties’ fairness views considerably and leads to a strong polarization that is even more pronounced when cheating generates negative externalities.

Date: 2025
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