Beliefs about Inequality and Perceptions of Distributive Justice

Abstract

This paper addresses a number of theoretical and empirical issues derived from distributive justice theory regarding the social psychological process of justice evaluation. Building upon current theory and research, justice evaluation conceived as a comparison of the rewards one receives with rewards s/he expects. Using data from a 1979 Indianapolis area survey, we examine beliefs about inequality and their role in subjective perceptions of distributive justice. We examine the extent to which what is affects perceptions of what ought to be using collective beliefs about distribution practices, that is, the extent to which persons perceive departures from justice in terms of existential standards. We find that it possible to abstract, with a high degree of distinctiveness, a set of aggregate principles representing existential notions about the ways in which individual characteristics are related to household income. We find that this approach to the measurement of reference standards for the evaluation of income receipts has some empirical validity, in that it predicts perceptions of overvs. under-reward, but such an approach to measuring departures from justice does not produce meaningful variation in measures of satisfaction and acceptance of income.

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