Chapter 6: Emotional Reactions to Unfairness: A Window into the Internalization of Fairness Standards

Much psychological research has examined how people respond to receiving fair or unfair outcomes, experiencing fair or unfair decision making procedures, or being treated fairly or unfairly. These studies show that experiencing injustice has strong influences upon people’s attitudes, feelings, and behaviors (see Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng 2001; Tyler & Lind, 1992). In documenting these reactions we have come to appreciate fairness as a standard that is meaningful to people, and find that people are troubled by being on the receiving end of deviations from this standard. This is true even when people experience unfair advantage - when they get more than they feel they deserve.