Social Value Orientation Moderates Fairness Perceptions and Willingness to Continue Under Different Opportunity Structures

Whether responses to different opportunity structures vary by social value orientation (SVO), particularly when individuals have more opportunities than others, remains unclear. This study examined this question in 208 Chinese undergraduates (47.60% female) aged 18 to 23 years. Using the triple-dominance matrix, participants were classified as prosocials or proselfs. Each participant encountered one of the three opportunity structures: equality, disadvantageous inequality, and advantageous inequality. Participants rated the fairness of their assigned opportunity structure and indicated their willingness to continue the game under it. Results showed that fairness perceptions and willingness to continue were highest under equality, followed by advantageous inequality, and lowest under disadvantageous inequality. Compared with proselfs, prosocials perceived advantageous inequality as less fair and reported lower willingness to continue under this condition, but reported higher willingness to continue under disadvantageous inequality. An additional analysis indicated that the discrepancy between fairness perceptions and willingness to continue was larger under advantageous inequality, especially among proselfs. These findings demonstrate that prosocials and proselfs differ in their responses to opportunity inequality, extending research on SVO beyond outcome allocation.