Procedural and distributive justice: What is fair depends more on what comes first than on what comes next

Abstract

In this article, 2 experiments are presented. In both experiments, the independent variables were whether the procedure was accurate or inaccurate, whether the outcome was favorable or unfavorable, and whether participants were informed about the procedure before or after they were informed about the outcome. The independent variables were manipulated by means of scenarios in Experiment 1 and by means of the R. Vermunt, A.P. Wit, K. van den Bos, and E.A. Lind (1996) paradigm in Experiment 2. As predicted on the basis of the authors' analysis of fairness heuristic theory, the findings revealed that what people judge to be fair is more strongly affected by information that is received first than by subsequently received information. The findings are discussed in terms of recent developments toward an integration of the procedural and distributive justice domains.