The Justice Motive in Everyday Life

This book describes how a concern for justice affects people's judgements and behaviours.

Michael Ross (Edited by), Dale T. Miller (Edited by)

9780521087933, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 December 2008

456 pages, 12 b/w illus. 15 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.67 kg

Review of the hardback: '… fascinating …' Debate

This book contains essays in honour of Melvin J. Lerner, a pioneer in the psychological study of justice. The contributors to this volume are internationally renowned scholars from psychology, business, and law. They examine the role of justice motivation in a wide variety of contexts, including workplace violence, affirmative action programs, helping or harming innocent victims and how people react to their own fate. Contributors explore fundamental issues such as whether people's interest in justice is motivated by self-interest or a genuine concern for the welfare of others, when and why people feel a need to punish transgressors, how a concern for justice emerges during the development of societies and individuals, and the relation of justice motivation to moral motivation. How an understanding of justice motivation can contribute to the amelioration of major social problems is also examined.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Introduction Michael Ross and Dale Miller
2. Pursuing the justice motive Melvin J. Lerner
Part II. Theoretical Perspectives on the Justice Motive: 3. Doing justice to the justice motive Leo Montada
4. The justice motive in perspective Riel Vermunt
5. Perverse justice and perverse norms: another turn of the screw Jose-Miguel Fernandez-Dols
6. Justice motivation
moral motivation C. Daniel Batson
Part III. Victim Derogation and the Belief in a Just World: 7. Why we reject innocent victims Carolyn L. Hafer
8. Helping and rationalization as alternative strategies for restoring the belief in a just world: evidence from longitudinal change analyses Barbara Reichle and Manfred Schmitt
9. Violence in the workplace: the explanatory strength of social (in)justice theories Herman Steensma
10. The just world and Winston Churchill: an approach/avoidance conflict about psychological distance when harming victims Robert Folger and S. Douglas Pugh
Part IV. The Justice Motive and Pro-Social Behavior: 11. Just world, social responsibility, and helping behavior Hans-Werner Bierhoff
12. Policies to redress social injustice: is the concern for justice a cause both of support and opposition? D. Ramona Bobocel, Leanne S. Son Hing, Camilla M. Holmvall and Mark P. Zanna
13. Justice and empathy: what motivates people to help others? Steven L. Blader and Tom R. Tyler
14. The justice motive and altruistic helping: rescuers of Jews in Nazi occupied Europe Janusz Reykowski
15. Acting righteously: the influence of attitude, moral responsibility, and emotional involvement Joseph de Rivera, Elena Gerstmann and Lisa Maisels
Part V. Justice-based Reactions to Transgressors: 16. Retributive justice: its social context Neil Vidmar
17. Just punishments: research on retributional justice John Darley
18. Deservingness, entitlement, and reactions to outcomes N. T. Feather
19. Just world processes in demonizing John H. Ellard, Christina D. Miller, Terri-Lynne Baumle and James M. Olson
Part VI. Justice and Reaction to One's Own Fate: 20. Belief in a just world as personal resource in school Claudia Dalbert and Jurgen Maes
21. Awakening to discrimination Faye J. Crosby and Stacy A. Ropp
22. Deservingness and perceptions of procedural justice in citizen encounters with the police Jason Sunshine and Larry Heuer
23. Fairness judgments as cognitions E. Allan Lind.

Subject Areas: The self, ego, identity, personality [JMS]