Unfair treatment and revenge taking: The roles of collective identification and feelings of disappointment

In the present research, we examine how procedural justice predicts acts of revenge as a function of members' sense of collective identification. A first scenario study showed that high identifiers expect their own group to be more fair and just than low identifiers, and if this is not the case, they exhibit higher levels of disappointment. A second scenario study showed that unfair procedures (relative to fair procedures) led to acts of revenge, but mainly so when collective identification was high rather than low. In addition, the level of disappointment that members experienced was found to mediate (at least partly) this interactive effect on revenge. A third laboratory study replicated the interactive finding of Study 2.