Pennies From Heaven:Overestimating How Others Are Satisfied With Unearned Benefits

People often receive “pennies from heaven” unintentionally.Prior research on advantageous inequity has focused on how recipients actually react to receiving unearned benefits and has demonstrated that recipients’ feelings are mixed,as they simultaneously receive more resources than they contributed and violate the equity norm.However,it remains unknown what other people think about recipients’ reactions.The current research attempts to fill this gap by examining how observers predict recipients’ satisfaction with receiving unearned benefits.We propose that observers will overestimate recipients’ satisfaction,and its underlying mechanism is observers’ inadequate awareness that recipients will feel uncomfortable violating the norm of equity after receiving unearned benefits.Across seven studies,we tested observers’ misprediction and the underlying mechanism.Studies 1(N = 220)and 2(N = 212)showed the misprediction made by observers.In Study 1,recipients imagined receiving a salary greater than or equal to their contributions and rated their satisfaction,while observers predicted recipients’ satisfaction.The result showed that observers overestimated recipients’ satisfaction with unearned benefits,yet accurately predicted recipients’ satisfaction with earned benefits.Study 2,where recipients’ workload was manipulated while their payoff was held constant,replicated the misprediction.Observers overestimated recipients’ satisfaction when recipients were assigned a workload less than the payoff,yet made accurate predictions when recipients were assigned a workload equal to the payoff.Studies 3(N = 106)and 4(N = 305)revealed the downstream consequences of this misprediction in real settings.If observers predict that recipients will be satisfied with unearned benefits,they will overestimate the likelihood that the recipients will engage in unethical behaviors to obtain unearned benefits.In Study 3,recipients reported their workloads and were paid by reported workloads,hence,recipients can overreport to obtain unearned benefits.In Study 4,recipients can return unearned benefits.Results showed that observers overestimated the likelihood that recipients would engage in unethical behavior(i.e.,overreporting and refusing to return)to obtain unearned benefits.Also,Study 4 included allocators and explored their predictions about recipients.Results showed that both observers and allocators overestimated how satisfied recipients were with unearned rewards.Studies 5(N = 145)and 6(N = 235)tested the underlying mechanism.By recording participants’ real-time thoughts(Study 5),we found that compared to recipients,observers paid less attention to negative feelings from equity violation,and therefore led to observers’ overestimation.Study 6 encouraged observers to focus on the consequences of equity violation reduced observers’ overestimation,therefore revealing the causality between thoughts of negative feelings from equity violation and observers’ overestimation.Study 7(N = 218)revealed the uniqueness of this misprediction.Study 7 included the condition of receiving fewer benefits,which removed the negative feeling of equity violation because recipients did not gain extra rewards by violating equity.In this condition,the difference between observers and recipients in terms of focus disappeared.As a result,observers’ overestimation was eliminated.In sum,this study reveals that observers overestimate recipients’ satisfaction with unearned benefits and the underlying mechanism is that observers take less account of equity violations than recipients do.Moreover,this misprediction is specific to unearned benefits.Observers can make an accurate prediction about recipients’ satisfaction with receiving earned benefits and receiving benefits fewer than their contributions.Our study reveals a novel misprediction,provides a perspective on advantageous inequity,and reveals that unearned money can not bring the expected utility.In addition,our study has some implications,reminding marketers and managers should be cautious about adopting unearned benefits.