Synergistic person x situation interaction in distributive justice judgment and allocation behaviour

Manfred Schmitt, Clara Sabbagh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Traditional models of distributive justice behaviour have focused predominantly on either person-specific or context-specific explanations. We suggest supplementing these models by including interaction effects between functionally equivalent situation and person factors. Two experiments were conducted to replicate results from a previous vignette experiment in which the effect of situational information that would justify an unequal distribution of burdens was lower for individuals with a positive attitude toward the equality principle than for individuals with a negative attitude toward this principle. The results of the present experiments are consistent with this finding. Again, situational information that would justify an unequal distribution of outcomes had a weaker effect for participants with a favourable attitude toward equality than for participants with an unfavourable attitude. Based on these results and results from other research domains, we concluded that the synergstic person × situation interactions is a general phenomenon that deserves more attention in theory and research. Several cognitive mechanisms, such as motivated perception, selective attention, and the availability of attitude-congruent situation schemas that may account for synergistic interactions in justice behaviour are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)359-371
Number of pages13
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume37
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2004

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was completed while the first author was a Fulbright Scholar and visiting professor at the University of California, Davis. Financial support was provided by the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk (VW-Foundation; Az II/78 240) and by the Minister of Science and Education of Rhineland-Palatinate with grants to the first author.

Keywords

  • Allocation behaviour
  • Consistency
  • Differential predictability
  • Fairness
  • Interactionism
  • Justice attitudes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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