Overcompensating Someone After an Accident Can Backfire

Research participants who were overcompensated with a payment of €100 for a €10 textbook that had been damaged by spilled Coke were 63% less likely to attribute the gesture to true moral obligation than were participants who were compensated for the exact cost of the book, says a team led by Tessa Haesevoets of Ghent University in Belgium. Because of guilt and suspicions about the payer’s motives, recipients of overcompensation tend to be less satisfied than people whose payment better matches the level of damage, the researchers say.