The Response Patterns Of Depressive Individuals Under Unfair Gain/Loss Situation

Fairness is an eternal value pursuit of human beings.Maintaining fairness is a necessary condition for sustaining human interaction and intergroup interaction.In real life,the fairness of distribution is manifested both as a mode of distribution of shared interests(e.g.,bonuses or compensation)and as a mode of distribution of shared responsibilities(e.g.,debt or obligations).Previous studies have shown that,for the non-depressive individuals,the sensitivity to unfair distribution in the context of loss is higher than in the context of benefit,showing that the non-depressive individuals had the contextual dependence of unfair perception.Based on the findings obtained from non-depressive individuals,can we explain the fair decision-making behavior of depressive individuals? Depression is a typical psychological disorder.Depressive patients have extensive emotional,behavioral,and cognitive impairments,and tend to avoid and alienate in interpersonal competition and cooperation.Therefore,it can be speculated that the depressive individuals have the specificity in the response pattern of unfair distribution in interpersonal interaction.Recent research examined the unfair distribution in a simple context of benefit as a respondents for depressive individuals.However,few studies explored the depressive individuals’ response pattern to unfair distribution in the context of loss.From the perspectives of responders,proposers,and bystanders,this present study explored whether there was consistency in the fairness propensity in both the context of benefit and loss for depressive individuals.Experiment 1 examined the propensity to fair decision making as the responders for depressive individuals.Experiment 2 examined the propensity to fair decision making as the proposers for depressive individuals.Experiment 3 examined the propensity to fair decision making as the bystanders for depressive individuals.The main findings of this present study are as follows:(1)Depressive individuals and non-depressive individuals are more likely to reject the unfair distribution scheme(Experiment 1)and are willing to pay more money to punish the proposers of the unfair distribution scheme(Experiment 3),demonstrating that both depressive individuals and non-depressive individuals show the fair preferences.(2)Depressive individuals and non-depressive individuals are more inclined to reject the unfair distribution scheme(Experiment 1)in the context of loss compared to the context of benefit,demonstrating that both depressive individuals and non-depressive individuals show a situational dependence on the response pattern to unfair decision making.(3)When compared with non-depressive individuals,as the responders,depressive individuals are more inclined to reject unfair distribution scheme in the context of loss(Experiment 1);when compared with non-depressive individuals,as the proposer,the difference between the number of money allocated to the opponent and the theoretical expectation of fair distribution in the context of loss is not significant,but the the number of money allocated to the opponent is less than the theoretical expectation of fair distribution in the context of benefit(Experiment 2);when compared with non-depressive individuals,as the bystanders,depressive individuals tend to pay less money in the context of loss to punish the proposer of the unfair distribution scheme(Experiment 3).These results indicate that depressive traits regulate the response patterns of individual fair decision making.This study not only helps to deepen the understanding of the fair response pattern of depressive individuals,but also helps to understand the general interpersonal avoidance and alienation behaviors of depressive individuals in real life.