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Choice and Personal Responsibility: What Is a Morally Relevant Choice?

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  • Alexander W. Cappelen
  • Sebastian Fest
  • Erik O. Sorensen
  • Bertil Tungodden

Abstract

The principle that people should be held personally responsible for the consequences of their choices is a fundamental moral ideal in Western societies. We report from a large-scale experimental study of how far-reaching this principle is for inequality acceptance. We show that third-party spectators violate minimal conditions for a morally relevant choice when making redistributive decisions for two workers. They accept more inequality when the workers have made nominal and forced choices than when brute luck is the source of inequality. We argue that our findings shed light on important current political debates about personal responsibility and redistributive policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander W. Cappelen & Sebastian Fest & Erik O. Sorensen & Bertil Tungodden, 2022. "Choice and Personal Responsibility: What Is a Morally Relevant Choice?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(5), pages 1110-1119, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:104:y:2022:i:5:p:1110-1119
    DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01010
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. O. Chanel & S. Luchini & M. Teschl & A. Trannoy, 2025. "Preferences for redistributive justice: A participatory-democracy experiment," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 23(3), pages 717-747, September.
    2. Matthew Robson & Tim Doran & Owen O’Donnell & Tom Van Ourti, 2025. "Do social preferences explain health inequality aversion?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 23(3), pages 933-956, September.
    3. Lu, Kelin, 2024. "Silver Spoons and Scales of Justice: The Fairness Preference over Unequal Intergenerational Wealth Transfers," MPRA Paper 121451, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Lu, Kelin, 2025. "Silver spoons and scales of justice: The fairness preference over unequal intergenerational wealth transfers between Americans and Chinese," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    5. Bortolotti, Stefania & Soraperra, Ivan & Sutter, Matthias, 2025. "Social Risk, Fairness Types, and Redistribution," IZA Discussion Papers 18122, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Peter Andre, 2025. "Shallow Meritocracy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 92(2), pages 772-807.
    7. Cappelen, Alexander W. & Gauri, Varun & Tungodden, Bertil, 2025. "Cooperation creates moral obligations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    8. Lu, Kelin, 2024. "Silver Spoons and Scales of Justice: The Fairness Preference over Unequal Intergenerational Wealth Transfers," MPRA Paper 121232, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Bouacida, Elias & Foucart, Renaud, 2025. "Rituals of reason: Experimental evidence on the social acceptability of lotteries in allocation problems," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 23-36.
    10. Roberto Brunetti & Matthieu Pourieux, 2026. "Representative policymakers? A behavioural experiment with French politicians," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 93(371), pages 930-961, July.
    11. Cattaneo, Cristina & Grieco, Daniela & Daminato, Claudio, 2026. "Meritocracy meets cooperative behavior in redistribution decisions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

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