Me, Myself, Fairness, and I: On the Self-Related Aspects of Fairness Reactions

Abstract

The current dissertation focuses on the psychology of justice as a self-related process. Six experiments within three justice domains are reported in which specific self-related aspects and their influence on fairness reactions are investigated. The construction of one’s self-image (i.e., the self-concept) is presumed to be involved in the experience of fair and unfair treatments by others. That is, how others approach a person, provides information about how they judge this person and in the end, how this person ‘should’ think about him- or herself (e.g., Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934). Chapter 2 demonstrates that this process mainly involves the individual aspects of the self-concept, meaning how people think about themselves as an individual, independent from others. In Study 2.1 this is demonstrated by the higher activation of the individual self than the social self in just and unjust situations. Study 2.2 adds to these findings by showing that fairness reactions are strongest when people were both being treated as individuals and their individual selves had been activated. Chapter 3 shows that when people'sself-image is being threatened, they pay more attention to fairness aspects in their environments, but do so in a self-centered way. This means that people do not only react more positive to a fair outcome (when they receive as much as another person), but also to being overpaid. These findings were gathered in a field experiment (Study 3.1) and a laboratory experiment (Study 3.2). When people have a higher need for positive self-views (e.g., because they are experiencing self-threats) they temporarily attach lower value to the unjust aspect of the overpayment and hence react more positively toward being overpaid. Self-related processes are also involved in how people deal with their Belief in a Just World (BJW) in which all people get what they deserve. The importance of this belief has been demonstrated by the strong, irrational and defensive ways in which people react when this belief is being threatened. For example, people tend to blame innocent victims for their ill fate, probably to restore the idea of deservingness (Lerner & Simmons, 1966). Chapter 4 investigated the processes of coping with just world threats. It was presumed that just world threats may essentially be self-threatening, and may thus involve self-regulation. Study 4.1 investigated the self-regulation process of coping with just-world threats by focusing on the frustration of self-regulation by studying the role of ego-depletion, which indeed caused stronger blaming reactions. Study 4.2 focused on the facilitation of self-regulation by studying the role of self-affirmation. which indeed caused the attenuation of blaming reactions. In summary, fairness reactions are driven by self-related processes. Not only the reactions of people to being treated in just or unjust ways involve the self, but also when they are being confronted with a strong injustice of another person.