Not fair for me! The influence of personal relevance on social justice inferences

Journal article | Zeitschriftenartikel

In this paper, we argue that the personal relevance of a situation primarily influences spontaneous inferences about social justice, and not necessarily affects explicit justice judgments. To test this hypothesis, two studies manipulated personal relevance and assessed justice inferences and judgments: Participants read descriptions of fair or unfair events happening to stimulus persons referred to with first-person versus third-person pronouns (Experiment 1) or as "a friend" versus "a stranger" (Experiment 2). We then measured spontaneous justice inferences (using the probe recognition paradigm) and explicit justice judgments (using rating scales). As predicted, both studies showed stronger spontaneous justice inferences for high personal relevance descriptions, of unjust events specifically, whereas explicit justice judgments were not significantly influenced by our personal relevance manipulations. These findings suggest that especially the spontaneous component of the justice judgment process is sensitive to personal relevance.

Object Details

• Extent: Seite(n): 699-705
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Status: Postprint; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(3)

Classification and Topics

• Subject: Psychologie ; Sozialpsychologie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ham, Jaap ; Bos, Kees van den
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika
• (when): 2008

Further information

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2007.04.009
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-243345
• Rights: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Bibliothek Köln
• Last update: 21.06.2024, 4:27 PM CEST