Are Team Members Less Inequality Averse than Individual Decision Makers?

We compare inequality aversion in individuals and teams by means of both within- and between-subject experimental designs, and we investigate how teams aggregate individual preferences. We find that team decisions reveal less inequality aversion than individual initial proposals in team decision-making. However, teams are no more selfish than individuals who decide in isolation. Individuals express more inequality aversion in their initial proposals in teams probably partly because they anticipate the selfishness of other members. Within teams, the member with median social preferences leads the team decision and the most inequality averse player makes the largest concessions. Finally, social image has little influence except that the lack of anonymity slows down the aggregation of preferences