Luck that Builds Merit

Abstract: A common way that luck affects people’s outcomes is by giving them the opportunity to develop merit. People generally find it unfair to allocate rewards and opportunities based on luck, but fair to allocate them based on merit. However, we do not yet know whether people find it fair or unfair to allocate goods based on luck that builds merit. This work seeks to understand how people judge fairness and how they select candidates who have benefitted from luck that builds merit. I find a gap between what people regard as fair and what they do. Selecting people who were lucky to build merit is regarded to be less fair than rewarding people who simply have merit, seemingly with no influence of luck, and fairer than rewarding people who were simply lucky. Nevertheless, people select high performers who were lucky to build merit as much as those who simply have merit. These findings help to understand why people find present inequalities to be unfair, but may nevertheless behave in ways that reinforce them.