NCJ Number
166513
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 9 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1996) Pages: 327-349
Date Published
1996
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes findings from two studies of the use of outcome fairness to make procedural fairness judgments.
Abstract
In a study of relocation decisions at seven different sites, procedural fairness was shown to be more sensitive to outcome fairness when respondents had less time to gather information about decision procedures. This finding shows that inaccessibility of information about decision procedures moderates the influence of outcome fairness judgments on procedural fairness judgments, such that outcome recipients rely more heavily on outcome fairness as a basis for forming procedural fairness judgments when information about decision procedures is not available. A second, laboratory study confirms the information inaccessibility explanation. When procedural information is available, procedural characteristics may be the primary bases for procedural fairness judgments, but when such information is unavailable, procedural fairness will likely be more sensitive to self-interest concerns. Future research should therefore take into account contextual factors such as accessibility to procedural information, given that there are likely to be differences in that area between organizational settings on the one hand and legal, political, and dispute resolution settings on the other. Table, figures, appendix, references