Carry-over effects in the within-subject spectator task

The spectator task elicits third parties’ inequality acceptance, allowing researchers to estimate population distributions of fairness-preference types. In its within-subject form, spectators make two subsequent choices in situations involving merit- and luck-based inequalities with randomized order. We document a carry-over effect: redistribution is lower in the second choice, and inferred fairness-type distributions vary with choice order. We cannot determine whether this pattern is driven by a psychological mechanism active during repeated choices or a contrast between inequality causes. Either interpretation implies a violation of causal transience and calls for caution when using this design.