How Men and Women Expect to Feel and Behave in Response to Inequity in Close Relationships

Abstract

The two major propositions from equity theory are that inequity causes distress and that this distress leads people to restore equity. A role-playing vignette study was conducted to test these propositions further and to examine how the individual variable gender and exchange orientations affect responses to inequity. Subjects expected to become distressed in response to underbenefiting inequity and to be likely to restore equiry to this situation. Although subjects did not believe they would become distressed overall in response to overbenefiting inequity, they expected that they would feel guilty and would engage in equity-restoring behaviors. Women were more likely than men to expect to become distressed and to engage in equity-restoring behaviors in response to both types of inequity