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

合作研究乔迪·克莱-罗宾森乔治亚大学林恩·史密斯-洛文杜克大学学者们普遍认为，过低的奖励会让人感到沮丧和愤怒。但两个主要的身份社会学理论--影响控制理论和身份控制理论--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他们应该得到的更好的待遇时，他们会有什么感觉？(2)在这些过度奖励的情况下，感觉和行动之间有什么关系？PIs将使用创新的生理学方法来解决社会学文献中的这一理论争议。这项研究将对认同、不公平和情绪之间的关系提供新的理解，同时开发新的测量技术来更好地区分情绪和认同不一致的理论结构。研究人员假设，对不公正的情绪反应更多地与身份认同有关，而不是与正义本身有关。只有当一个人认为自己得到了过高的奖励--以别人的利益和他们的知识为代价而取得成功--是一个坏人时，过度的奖励才会让人感觉不好。过度奖励只有在产生负面认同时才会导致负面情绪。否则，收到超过应得的东西的经历会向积极的方向否定先前存在的身份，并产生积极的情绪。情感控制理论的一个有趣的、与直觉相反的预测是，即使过度奖励的参与者会感觉良好，他们也会在未来几轮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具有更广泛的影响。它们将具体说明导致对不公正的行为补救的条件，以及在哪些情况下可能有其他机制可用于解决因过度奖励而产生的任何压力。由于那些奖励不足的人往往不能很好地帮助自己获得更多的资源，因此奖励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.