NCJ Number
194790
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2001 Pages: 265-287
Date Published
2001
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This paper introduces the different concepts of justice judgments found in the normative and empirical research disciplines, outlines a differentiation between two classes of justice judgments, presents a quasi-experimental survey to test the two different classes of justice judgments empirically, and presents reasons for empirical research to include a concept of justice judgment based on two formal criteria.
Abstract
This paper begins with the suggestion that empirical research should distinguish between two classes of justice judgments: (1) justice judgments that are made under conditions of impartiality and grounded in moral principles and (2) justice attitudes that differ from other types of social attitudes in their attitude objects. The paper then presents a quasi-experimental survey testing the two classes of justice judgments empirically. The goal of this explorative study was to examine if justice judgments could be empirically assessed even under simple conditions of survey research. Results in the first evaluation were interpreted as self-interested justice attitudes. In the second evaluation round, the second experimental group (information and sensitizing) was less affected by personal interests and might be guided by ethical preferences when judging on distribution of social negatives such as taxes. Additionally, it was hypothesized that justice judgments based on impartiality and moral principles might serve as important intervening variables when trying to explain the impact of justice beliefs on different patterns of human behavior. Tables, references