Grouping Promotes Equality: The Effect of Recipient Grouping on Allocation of Limited Medical Resources.

ABSTRACT: Decisions about allocation of scarce resources, such as transplant organs, often entail a trade-off between efficiency (i.e., maximizing the total benefit) and fairness (i.e., dividing resources equally). In three studies, we used a hypothetical scenario for transplant-organ allocation to examine allocation to groups versus individuals. Study 1 demonstrated that allocation to individuals is more efficient than allocation to groups. Study 2 identified a factor that triggers the use of fairness over efficiency: presenting the beneficiaries as one arbitrary group rather than two. Specifically, when beneficiaries were presented as one group, policymakers tended to allocate resources efficiently, maximizing total benefit. However, when beneficiaries were divided into two arbitrary groups (by ho

SUBMITTER: Colby H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4504740 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature