PSYCHOLOGICAL MODELS OF THE JUSTICE MOTIVE - ANTECEDENTS OF DISTRIBUTIVE AND PROCEDURAL JUSTICE

Two psychological theories consider why people care about justice. The social-exchange-based resource model argues that people want to maximize the resources they obtain from social interactions, a goal that they believe is facilitated by following rules of distributive and procedural justice; the identity-based relational model suggests that people attempt to maintain high status within groups and use the justice of their experiences to evaluate their group status. Two studies on reactions to experiences with authorities-legal and managerial-examine the influence of these motives on (a) people's evaluations of the distributive and procedural justice of their experiences and (b) affective and behavioral reactions to those experiences. Results supported a model in which relational issues dominate definitions of justice. Whereas distributive justice judgments are shaped by both resource and relational judgments, procedural justice judgments are shaped by relational concerns. The findings suggest two distinct justice motives.