Collaborative Research Examining the Relationship between Identity, Injustice, and Emotion

合作研究乔治亚大学的乔迪·克莱-罗宾逊学者们普遍认为，奖励不足会让人产生抑郁和愤怒等负面情绪。但是，两种主要的社会学认同理论--情感控制理论和认同控制理论--对人们如何应对过度奖励做出了截然相反的预测。 这个项目将研究两个主要问题：（1）当人们受到比他们认为自己应得的更好的待遇时，他们会有什么感受？(2)在这些过度奖励的情况下，感觉和行为之间的关系是什么？PI将使用创新的生理措施来解决社会学文献中的这一理论争议。这项研究将提供一个新的理解之间的关系，身份，不公正和情绪，同时开发新的测量技术，以更好地区分情绪和身份不确认的理论结构。研究人员假设，对不公正的情绪反应更多地与身份有关，而不是正义本身。只有当一个人认为自己是一个坏人，因为他得到了过度的回报--以他人的知识为代价获得成功--过度的回报才会让人感觉不好。过度奖励只有在产生消极认同时才会导致消极情绪。否则，获得超过自己应得的体验将否定预先存在的身份，并产生积极的情绪。情感控制理论有一个有趣的反直觉预测，即即使过度奖励的参与者会感觉良好，他们也会在未来的实验中采取行动减少过度奖励。 更广泛的影响：这项研究对工作环境，政治政策讨论和理解社会运动有更广泛的影响。他们将详细说明导致不公正行为补救的条件，以及其他机制可能用于解决过度奖励导致的任何压力的情况。由于那些回报不足的人往往没有能力帮助自己获得更多的资源，因此回报过高的人的反应是解决许多形式的不公正的关键。

Collaborative ResearchSES- 0519969Dawn RobinsonJody Clay-RobinsonUniversity of GeorgiaSES- 0520055Lynn Smith-LovinDuke UniversityScholars widely agree that under-reward makes people feel negative emotions like depression and anger. But two major sociological theories of identity- affect control theory and identity control theory- make diametrically opposing predictions about how people respond to over-reward. This project will examine two main questions: (1) How do people feel when they are treated better than they feel they deserve? (2) What is the relationship between feeling and action in these situations of over-reward? The PIs will use innovative physiological measures to resolve this theoretical controversy in the sociological literature. This research will offer a new understanding of the relationship between identity, injustice, and emotion, while developing new measurement techniques to better distinguish the theoretical constructs of emotion and identity disconfirmation. The researchers hypothesize that emotional response to injustice is more related to identity than to justice itself. It is only when one thinks that one is being a bad person by being over-rewarded- getting ahead at someone else's expense and with their knowledge- that over-reward makes one feel bad. Over-reward will lead to negative emotion only when it creates a negative identity. Otherwise, the experience of receiving more than one deserves will disconfirm the pre-existing identity in a positive direction, and produce positive emotion. An interesting, counter-intuitive prediction of affect control theory is that even though over-rewarded participants will feel good, they will act to reduce the over-reward in future rounds of the experiments. Broader Impacts: The research has broader implications for work settings, political policy discussions and for understanding social movement. They will specify the conditions that lead to behavioral remedy for injustice, and the occasions in which other mechanisms are likely to be available for resolving any stress that results from over-reward. Since those who are under-rewarded are often not well positioned to help themselves gain more resources, the reactions of the over-rewarded are key to addressing many forms of injustice.