When will the unaffected seek justice for others? Perceptions of and responses to another's injustice

Abstract

Despite the plethora of research on perceptions of and responses to personal injustices, fewer studies have examined the reactions of those who observe another's injustice. This study extends work on the fair process effect (i.e., the positive impact of procedural justice on distributive justice assessments) to instances in which observers judge another's outcome injustice. Another aim was to examine how two group-oriented factors (legitimacy of the authority and the strength of the observer's group identity) modify the fair process effect by reducing uncertainty about the authority's trustworthiness and evoking relational concerns about group values, respectively. Results from a vignette study involving the allocation of committee positions show that procedural justice directly, and in conjunction with endorsement, influences observers' perceptions of injustice. Other findings demonstrate how justice perceptions mediate the effects of procedural justice and other factors on anticipated behavioural responses to another's injustice. Discussion focuses on when the unaffected will seek justice for others.

Income Inequality and Subjective Wellbeing: Trends, Challenges, and Research Directions

“…In addition, research on social justice may provide helpful insights into preference formation on issues of distributive matters (Schneider 2014), as it probes how individuals evaluate distributive matters and how emotional and behavioral reactions are provoked (e.g. Berger et al 1972;Crosby 1976;Hegtvedt et al 2008Hegtvedt et al , 2009. As it offers valuable information on the conceptualization and measurement of preferences and attitudes of perceived injustices (Jasso 2008;Jasso and Wegener 1997), it can help categorize the various links between perceptions of inequality and SWB while paying attention to context-specific norms and value systems (Hegtvedt 2006).…”

Observer reactions to interpersonal injustice: The roles of perpetrator intent and victim perception

“…The reaction of observers to others' mistreatment is a latecomer to the organizational justice literature: “To date, theory and research on organizational justice has tended to focus on the victim's (i.e., the employee's) perspective; the third‐party's perspective has received relatively little systematic attention” (Skarlicki & Kulik, , p. 183). Interestingly enough, that statement continues to be descriptive up to the present, as evidenced by a 2009 comment that “research about observers' or ‘third‐party’ reactions to injustice has only recently emerged” (Hegtvedt, Johnson, Ganem, Waldron, & Brody, , p. 22). In particular, the current research addresses a call from the literature for “three new foci for attention: A focus on the perpetrator, a focus on the victim, and a focus on the offensiveness of the act itself” (Turillo, Folger, LaVelle, Umphress, & Gee, , p. 839).…”

Reducing courts' failure-to-appear rate by written reminders.

“…Although the expected outcomes of court proceedings are somewhat unpredictable and idiosyncratic to each case, the procedures themselves are relatively standardized. Individuals are more likely to accept adverse outcomes and follow unwanted directives when they perceive the procedures used to arrive at those outcomes as procedurally fair (e.g., Hegtvedt, Johnson, Ganem, Waldron, & Brody, 2009;Thibaut & Walker, 1975;Tyler, 2006a), and when they have high trust and confidence in governmental institutions (e.g., Baum, 2006;Gibson, Caldeira, & Spence, 2003. Perceptions of procedural justice have been examined in a range of contexts, both inside and outside the courtroom (e.g., Murphy, 2008;Tomkins & Applequist, 2008;Tyler, 2007), and they have been studied in both experimental and more naturalistic settings (MacCoun, 2005).…”