Abstract
The objective of empirical justice analysis is fourfold: (i) to obtain numerical approximations of the quantities and relations identified by justice theory; (ii) to gauge the extent of interindividual and intergroup variation in the quantities and relations; (iii) to explain their etiology, including the effects of social structure and of the observer’s position in the stratification structure; and (iv) to assess their behavioral and social consequences. This is the first of two papers whose goal is to begin systematic collection of the methods for empirical justice analysis. In this paper, we start by describing the general four-question framework for studying justice, a framework which can be used to organize the accumulating knowledge in the field and to guide both theoretical and empirical inquiry and which can be applied to disparate justice domains. Next we show how attentiveness to empirical intrusions, such as cognitive distortions, together with further reasonings, transforms the three fundamental quantities of the framework—the actual condition, the just condition, and the justice evaluation—into an expanded set of terms, relations, and specific functions. To provide concrete description of methods, we focus on application of the framework to questions of distributive and retributive justice, noting, however, that some of these methods can directly be used for studying questions of procedural justice and of the just society and may be generalizable to further domains. We derive a set of 18 quantities and eight relations identified by the justice framework, and, to prepare for obtaining numerical approximations, we briefly discuss three types of operations—measurement, estimation, and calculation— and present basic empirical models derived from the framework. In the second paper of this set, we will describe several basic research designs, discuss design-specific procedures for obtaining numerical approximations of the justice quantities and relations, and provide empirical illustration.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alexander, C. M. (1972). Status Perception.Am. Sociol. Rev. 37: 767–773.
Alwin, D. (1987). Distributive justice and satisfaction with material well-being.Am. Sociol. Rev. 52: 83–95.
Alwin, D. (1992). Equity theory. In Borgatta, E. F., and Borgatta, M. L. (eds.),Encyclopedia of Sociology, Vol. 2, Macmillan, New York, pp. 563–575.
Aristotle. (1952).The Works of Aristotle, 2 vols. Various translators. Britannica, Chicago.
Arts, W., Hermkens, P., and van Wijck, P. (1991). Income and the idea of justice: Principles, judgments, and their framing.J. Econ. Psychol. 12: 121–140.
Baumol, W. (1986).Superfairness, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Bentham, J. (1789/1970).An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, Hrsg. v. J. H. Burns, H. L. A. Hart, Collected Works. Athlone, London.
Berger, J., Zelditch, M., Anderson, B., and Cohen, B. P. (1972). Structural aspects of distributive justice: A status-value formulation. In Berger, J., Zelditch, M., and Anderson, B. (eds.),Sociological Theories in Progress, Vol. 2, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, pp. 119–246.
Bernoulli, D. (1738/1954). Exposition of a new theory on the measurement of risk.Econometrica 22: 23–36. (Trans. L. Sommer,Specimen theoriae novae de mensura sortis.)
Birnbaum, M. H. (1982). Controversies in psychological measurement. In Wegener, B. (ed.),Social Attitudes and Psychophysical Measurement, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 401–458.
Blau, P. M. (1964).Exchange and Power in Social Life, Wiley, New York.
Bolanowski, S. J., and Gescheider, G. A. (eds.). (1991).Ratio Scales of Psychological Magnitude. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Brams, S. J., and Taylor, A. D. (1996).Fair Division, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Brickman, P. R., Folger, R., Goode, E., and Schul, Y. (1981). Micro and macro justice. In Lerner, M. J., and Lerner, S. C. (eds.),The Justice Motive in Social Behavior, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 173–202.
Burnstein, E. (1967). Sources of cognitive bias in the presentation of simple social structures.J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 7: 36–48.
Cohen, R. L. (1987). Distributive justice: Theory and research.Soc. Justice Res. 1: 19–40.
Cook, K. S. (1975). Expectations, evaluations, and equity.Am. Sociol. Rev. 40: 372–388.
Cook, K. S. (1987). Toward a more interdisciplinary research agenda: The potential contributions of sociology.Soc. Justice Res. 1: 5–18.
DeSoto, C. B., and Bosley, J. J. (1962). The cognitive structure of social structure.J. Abn. Soc. Psychol. 64: 303–307.
DeSoto, C. B., London, M., and Handel, S. (1965). Social reasoning and spatial paralogic.J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 2: 513–521.
Deutsch, M. (1975). Equity, equality, and need: What determines which value will be used as the basis of justice?J. Soc. Issues 31: 137–149.
Eckel, C. C. (1994). Four fairness contexts. Working Paper, Department of Economics, Virginia Polytechnic University.
Elster, J. (1992).Local Justice: How Institutions Allocate Scarce Goods and Necessary Burdens. New York: Russell Sage.
Fechner, G. T. (1860/1907).Elemente der Psychophysik, 2 vols., Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig.
Fechner, G. T. (1877/1968).In Sachen der Psychophysik. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig. (Edition published by E. J. Bonset, Amsterdam.)
Fehr, E., Kirchsteiger, G., and Riedl, A. (1993). Does fairness prevent market clearing? An experimental investigation.Quart. J. Econ. 108: 437–460.
Folger, R. (1977). Distributive and procedural justice: Combined impact of ‘voice’ and improvement on experienced inequity.J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 35: 108–119.
Form, W. H., and Rytina, J. H. (1969). Ideological beliefs on the distribution of power in the United States.Am. Sociol. Rev. 34: 19–31.
Gescheider, G. A. (1976).Psychophysics: Method and Theory, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Griffith, W. I., and Sell, J. (1988). The effects of competition on allocators’ preferences for contributive and retributive justice rules.Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 18: 443–455.
Hardin, R. (1987). Social justice in the large and small.Soc. Justice Res. 1: 83–105.
Hegtvedt, K. A. (1992). When is a distribution rule just?Ration. Soc. 4: 308–331.
Homans, G. C. (1961/1974).Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms, Rev. ed., Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York.
Isaac, R. M., Mathieu, D., and Zajac, E. E. (1991). Institutional framing and perceptions of fairness.Constitutional Polit. Econ. 2: 329–370.
Jasso, G. (1978). On the justice of earnings: A new specification of the justice evaluation function.Am. J. Sociol. 83: 1398–1419.
Jasso, G. (1980). A new theory of distributive justice.Am. Sociol. Rev. 45: 3–32.
Jasso, G. (1983). Fairness of individual rewards and fairness of the reward distribution: Specifying the inconsistency between the micro and macro principles of justice.Soc. Psychol. Quart. 46: 185–199.
Jasso, G. (1989). The theory of the distributive-justice force in human affairs: Analyzing the three central questions. In Berger, J., Zelditch, M., Jr., and Anderson, B. (eds.), Sociological Theories in Progress: New Formulations. Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 354–387.
Jasso, G. (1990). Methods for the theoretical and empirical analysis of comparison processes. In Clogg, C. C. (ed.),Sociological Methodology 1990, American Sociological Association, Washington, DC.
Jasso, G. (1993). Choice and emotion in comparison theory.Ration. Soc. 5: 231–274.
Jasso, G. (1994). Assessing individual and group differences in the sense of justice: Framework and application to gender differences in judgements of the justice of earnings.Soc. Sci. Res. 23: 368–406.
Jasso, G. (1996). Exploring the reciprocal relations between theoretical and empirical work.Sociol. Meth. Res. 24: 253–303.
Jasso, G., and Rossi, P. H. (1977). Distributive justice and earned income.Am. Sociol. Rev. 42: 639–651.
Jasso, G., and Webster, M., Jr. (1997). Double standards in just earnings for male and female workers.Soc. Psychol. Quart. 60: 66–78.
Jasso, G., and Wegener, B. (in press). Gender and country differences in the sense of justice: Justice evaluation, gender earnings gap, and earnings functions in thirteen countries.Int. J. Comp. Sociol.
Kahneman, D., and Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk.Econometrica 47: 263–291.
Kelley, J., and Evans, M. D. R. (1993). The legitimation of inequality: Occupational earnings in nine countries.Am. J. Sociol. 99: 75–125.
Kluegel, J. R., and Smith, E. R. (1986).Beliefs About Inequality: Americans’ Views of What is and What Ought to Be, Aldine de Gruyter, New York.
Krueger, L. E. (1991). Toward a unified psychophysical law and beyond. In Bolanowski, S. J., and Gescheider, G. A. (eds.),Ratio Scales of Psychological Magnitude, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
Lerner, M. J. (1974). The justice motive: ‘Equity’ and ‘parity’ among children.J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 29, 539–550.
Leventhal (1976). The distribution of rewards and resources in groups and organizations. In Leonard Berkowitz and Elaine Walster (eds.),Equity Theory: Toward a General Theory of Social Interaction. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 9. Academic, New York, pp. 91–131.
Lewis, L. S. (1964). Class and perception of class.Soc. Forces 42: 336–340.
Lissowski, G., and Swistak, P. (1995). Choosing the best social order: New principles of justice and normative dimensions of choice.Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 89: 74–96.
Lodge, M. (1981).Psychophysical Scaling, Sage, Beverly Hills, Ca.
MacKellar, L. (1995). Population and fairness. Paper presented to the Seventh Annual Frontiers of Science Symposium, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Irvine, California. Working Paper, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.
Mann, M. (1970). The social cohesion of liberal democracy.Am. Sociol. Rev. 35: 423–439.
Markovsky, B. (1988). Injustice and arousal.Soc. Justice Res. 2: 223–233.
Marks, L. E. (1978).Sensory Processes: The New Psychophysics, Academic Press, New York.
Meeker, B. F., and Elliott, G. C. (1987). Counting the costs: Equity and the allocation of negative group products.Soc. Psychol. Quart. 50: 9–15.
Merton, R. K., and Rossi, A. S. (1950). Contributions to the theory of reference group behavior. In Merton, R. K, and Lazarsfeld, P. (eds.),Continuities in Social Research: Studies in the Scope and Methods of the American Soldier, Free Press, New York, pp. 40–105.
Messick, S. (1968). Response sets. Sills, D. L. (ed.),International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 13. Macmillan, New York, pp. 492–496.
Mikula, G. (1974). Nationality, performance, and sex as determinants of reward allocation.J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 29: 435–440.
Montada, L. (1991). Coping with life stress: Injustice and the question ‘who is responsible?’ In Steensma, H., and Vermunt, R. (eds.),Social Justice in Human Relations; Vol. 2.Societal and Psychological Consequences of Justice and Injustice, Plenum Press, New York.
Mummendey, A., and Otten, S. (1997). Valence-dependent judgements of inappropriateness: Further clarification of the positive-negative asymmetry in social discrimination. Paper presented at the Sixth Biennial meeting of the International Network for Social Justice Research, Potsdam, Germany.
Olson, J. T. (1997). Perceptions of global inequality: A call for research.Soc. Justice Res. 10: 39–62.
Rawls, J. (1971).A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Reichle, B. (1997). From is to ought and the kitchen sink: On the justice of distributions in close relationships. Paper presented at the VIth Biennial Meeting of the International Newwork for Social Justice Research, Potsdam, Germany, July 1997.
Robinson, R. V., and Bell, W. (1978). Equality, success, and social justice in England and the United Sates.Am. Sociol. Rev. 43: 125–143.
Rossi, P. H. (1951).The application of latent structure analysis to the study of social stratification. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Columbia University.
Rossi, P. H. (1979). Vignette analysis: Uncovering the normative structure of complex judgments. In Merton, R. K., Coleman, J. S., and Rossi, P. H. (eds.),Qualitative and Quantitative Social Reach: Papers in Honor of Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Free Press, New York.
Rossi, P. H., Simpson, J. E., and Miller, J. L. (1985). Beyond crime seriousness: Fitting the punishment to the crime.J. Quant. Criminol. 1: 59–90.
Sabbagh, C., Dar, Y., and Resh, N. (1994). The structure of social justice judgements: A facet approach.Soc. Psychol. Quart. 57: 244–261.
Sabbagh, C., and Schmitt, M. (1997). Exploring the structure of justice judgements in positive and negative resource allocation. Paper presented at the Sixth Biennial Meeting of the International Network for Social Justice Research, Potsdam, Germany.
Schmitt, M. (1995). Justice research from an interactionist perspective. Paper presented at the Fifth International Conference on Social Justice, Reno, Nevada.
Shepard, R. (1981). Psychological relations and psychophysical scales: On the status of ‘direct’ psychophysical measurement.J. Math. Psychol. 24: 21–57.
Sneed, J. D. (1979).The Logical Structure of Mathematical Physics, 2nd ed., D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Steensma, H., and Vermunt, R. (1991). Future trends in the study of social justice. In Steensma, H., and Vermunt, R. (eds.),Social Justice in Human Relations: Vol. 2. Societal and Psychological Consequences of Justice and Injustice, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 269–278.
Stevens, S. S. (1957). On the psychophysical law.Psychol. Rev. 64: 153–181.
Stevens, J. C. (1968). Psychophysics. In Sills, D. L. (ed.),International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 13, Macmillan, New York, pp. 120–126.
Stevens, S. S. (1975/1986). In Stevens, G. (ed.),Psychophysics: An Introduction to Its Perceptual, Neural, and Social Prospects, Wiley, New York.
Szirmai, A. (1991). Explaining variation in attitudes toward income inequality. In Steensma, H., and Vermunt, R. (eds.),Social Justice in Human Relations: Vol. 2: Societal and Psychological Consequences of Justice and Injustice. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 229–268.
Tallman, I., and Ihringer-Tallman, M. (1979). Values, distributive justice and social change.Am. Sociol. Rev. 44: 216–235.
Törnblom, K. Y. (1988). Positive and negative allocations: A typology and a model for conflicting justice principles.Adv. Group Proc. 5: 141–168.
Törnblom, K. Y., and Vermunt, R. (1997). The integration of distributive and procedural justice in the allocation of positive and negative resources: A theoretical framework. Paper presented at the Sixth Biennial Meeting of the International Network for Social Justice Research, Potsdam, Germany.
Tversky, A., and Kahneman, D. (1986). Rational choice and the framing of decisions. In Hogarth, M., and Reder, M. W. (eds.),Rational Choice: The Contrast between Economics and Psychology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 67–94.
Tyler, T. (1997). Justice and culture. Paper presented at the VIth Biennial Meeting of the International Network for Social Justice Research, Potsdam, Germany, July 1997.
van Dijk, E., Engelsen, M., van Leeuwen, E., Moden, L., and Sluijter, E. (1997). But what if we don’t make profit? Distributing positive and negative outcomes. Paper presented at the Sixth Biennial Meeting of the International Network for Social Justice Research, Potsdam, Germany.
Wagner, D., and Berger, J. (1985). Do sociological theories grow?Am. J. Sociol. 90: 697–728.
Walster, E., Berscheid, E., and Walster, G. W. (1976). New directions in equity research. In Berkowitz, L., and Walster, E. (eds.),Equity Theory: Toward a General Theory of Social Interaction, Academic Press, New York, pp. 1–42.
Wegener, B. (1982). Outline of a structural taxonomy of sensory and social psychophysics. In Wegener, B. (ed.),Social Attitudes and Psychophysical Measurement, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 1–40.
Wegener, B. (1983). Category-rating and magnitude estimation scaling techniques: An empirical comparison.Sociol. Meth. Res. 12: 31–75.
Wegener, B. (1987). The illusion of distributive justice.Eur. Sociol. Rev. 3: 1–13.
Wegener, B. (1988).Kritik des Prestiges, Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen.
Wegener, B. (1990). Equity, relative deprivation, and the value consensus paradox.Soc. Justice Res. 4: 65–86.
Wegener, B. (1992). Gerechtigkeitsforschung und Legitimationsnormen.Z. Soziol. 21: 269–283.
Wegener, B., and Liebig, S. (1995). Hierarchical and social closure conceptions of distributive social justice: A comparison of East and West Germany. In Kluegel, J., Mason, D., and Wegener, B. (eds.),Social Justice and Political Change: Public Opinion in Capitalist and Post-Communist States, Aldine de Gruyter, New York, pp. 263–284.
Wegener, B., and Steinmann, S. (1995). Justice psychophysics in the real world: Comparing income justice and income satisfaction in East and West Germany. In Kluegel, J., Mason, D., and Wegener, B. (eds.),Social Justice and Political Change: Public Opinion in Capitalist and Post-Communist States, Aldine de Gruyter, New York, pp. 151–175.
Wenzel, M. (1997). Levels of identity in distributive justice. Paper presented at the VIth Biennial Meeting of the International Network for Social Justice Research, Potsdam, Germany, July 1997.
Wiedenbeck, M. (1997). The aggregation of power functions. Unpublished manuscript.
Young, P. (1994).Equity: In Theory and Practice, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Authors’ names are listed in alphabetical order.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jasso, G., Wegener, B. Methods for empirical justice analysis: Part 1. Framework, models, and quantities. Soc Just Res 10, 393–430 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02683292
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02683292