Collaborative Research: Examining Emotional Reactions to Standards of Justice

乔迪·克莱-华纳·道恩·T·罗宾逊，佐治亚大学社会正义-0966488林恩·史密斯-洛文·杜克大学正义理论预测，当人们收到的东西超过他们应得的或低于他们应得的时，人们会感到负面情绪。研究一直证实，收到的钱比应得的少会激起负面情绪。然而，关于人们在获得过高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想法，即这些不一致是采用不同的司法标准造成的。研究人员假设，当违反公平正义标准而导致过度奖励时，人们会感到痛苦和内疚--这是基于当地与特定其他人的比较。他们还预测，当过度奖励是由于违反了正义的参照标准--这是基于与某些普遍预期的远距离比较--时，人们不会感到痛苦和内疚。根据这一逻辑，如果一个人的工作时间与同事相同，但工资高于同事，他会感到内疚。相反，如果他得到的工资高于正常工资，他不会感到内疚。做一份特殊的工作。为了验证这些预测，研究人员将进行一系列实验，以检查人们对过度奖励的情绪反应，从而将正义标准的影响与背景因素的影响分开。如果预测是正确的，那么在公平和参照比较过程中可能会有根本的差异，因此需要更具体地说明正义理论。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。由于报酬不足的人通常缺乏为自己获得更多资源的能力，因此报酬过高的人往往有责任纠正不公正的不平等。因此，了解那些获得过高回报的人对他们所处的有利地位的感受，将有助于更好地理解在各种情况下如何补救不公正。拟议的研究还将为两个机构的不同群体的本科生和研究生研究助理提供培训和指导机会。

SES-0966536 Jody Clay-Warner Dawn T. Robinson, University of Georgia SES-0966488 Lynn Smith-Lovin Duke University Theories 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 Impacts This 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