A heuristic model to explain perceptions of unjust events

A heuristic model was proposed to explain the dimensions people use to evaluate an event as unjust. The model predicted that people will use three main dimensions to evaluate an event as unjust: (i) issues of entitlement (i.e., deservingness) (ii) interactional justice, and (iii) issues that question a person's image as a fair and worthy being. To test this model, subjects read accounts of severe and mild unjust events and grouped these events into piles based on their degree of similarity. These data were then analyzed via multidimensional scaling. Three dimensions emerged which provided encouraging support for the model: (i) procedural inadequacy vs. personal incompetence/greed, (ii) unequal status/norm violations vs. equal status/interpersonal violations, and (iii) characterological-based mistreatment vs. behavioral-other mistreatment. The implications of these findings for the phenomenology of injustice are discussed. © 1992 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

Duke Scholars

Author Isaac Marcelo Lipkus School of Nursing