Collaborative Research: Examining Emotional Reactions to Standards of Justice

公正理论预测，当人们得到的比他们应得的多或比他们应得的少时，他们会感到消极情绪。研究不断证实，得不到应得的会引起负面情绪。然而，关于人们在被过度奖励时的感受的研究并不一致。目前的项目调查了这样一种观点，即这些不一致是采用不同的司法标准的结果。研究人员假设，当过度奖励导致违反公平正义标准时，人们会感到痛苦和内疚——这是基于与特定其他人的局部比较。他们还预测，当过度奖励是由于违反了正义的参考标准时，人们不会感到痛苦和内疚——这是基于与一些广义期望的远端比较。根据这个逻辑，如果一个人工作的时间和同事一样长，但工资却比同事高，他就会感到内疚。相反，如果他的工资比一般人高，他也不会感到内疚。率呢?为了一份特殊的工作。为了验证这些预测，研究人员将进行一系列实验，以检验对过度奖励的情绪反应，从而将公正标准的影响与环境因素的影响分开。如果预测是正确的，那么在公平和参照比较过程中可能存在根本差异，因此需要更详细地说明正义理论。更广泛的影响这项研究对工作环境、政策讨论和理解社会运动具有广泛的影响。由于奖励不足的人通常缺乏为自己获得更多资源的能力，因此补偿不公平的不平等往往是奖励过多的人义不容词的责任。因此，了解过度奖励者对自己有利地位的感受，将有助于更好地理解在各种情况下如何纠正不公正。拟议的研究还将为两个机构的本科生和研究生研究助理提供培训和指导机会

SES-0966536Jody Clay-WarnerDawn T. Robinson,University of GeorgiaSES-0966488Lynn Smith-LovinDuke UniversityTheories of justice predict that people feel negative emotion when they receive either more than they deserve or less than they deserve. Research consistently confirms that receiving less than one deserves evokes negative emotion. However, research regarding how people feel when over-rewarded is inconsistent. The current project investigates the idea that these inconsistencies are the result of employing different standards of justice. The researchers hypothesize that people feel distress and guilt when over-reward results from violation of the equity standard of justice -- which is based on local comparisons with specific others. They also predict that people do not feel distress and guilt when over-reward results from a violation of the referential standard of justice -- which is based on distal comparisons to some generalized expectation. By this logic, a person would feel guilty if he worked the same number of hours as a coworker but was paid more than the coworker. Conversely, he would not feel guilty if he were paid a higher wage than the typical ?going rate? for a particular job. In order to test these predictions, the researchers will conduct a series of experiments to examine emotional reactions to over-reward that will disentangle the effects of the justice standard from the effects of contextual factors. If the predictions are correct, then there may be fundamental differences in equity and referential comparison processes and thus a need for greater specification of justice theory. Broader ImpactsThis research has broad implications for work settings, for policy discussions and for understanding social movements. Since the under-rewarded typically lack the ability to gain more resources for themselves, it is often incumbent upon the over-rewarded to remedy unjust inequality. As a result, understanding how the over-rewarded feel about their favored position will lead to a better understanding of how injustice may be remedied in a variety of settings. The proposed research will also provide training and mentoring opportunities for a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate research assistants at two institutions