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Journal Article
| Journal of Applied Social Psychology
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2009
The Performer's Reactions to Procedural Injustice: When Prosocial Identity Reduces Prosocial Behavior
by
Adam M. Grant, Andrew Molinsky, Joshua D. Margolis, Melissa Kamin and William Schiano
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Abstract
Considerable research has examined how procedural injustice affects victims and witnesses of unfavorable outcomes, with little attention to the “performers” who deliver these outcomes. Drawing on dissonance theory, we hypothesized that performers' reactions to procedural injustice in delivering unfavorable outcomes are moderated by prosocial identity—a helping-focused self-concept. Across two experiments, individuals communicated unfavorable outcomes decided by a superior. Consistent with justice research, when prosocial identities were not primed, performers experienced greater negative affect and behaved more prosocially toward victims when a superior's decision-making procedures were unjust. Subtly activating performers' prosocial identities reversed these reactions. Results highlight how roles and identities shape the experience and delivery of unfavorable outcomes; when procedures are unjust, prosocial identity can reduce prosocial behavior.
Keywords: Interpersonal Communication;
Judgments;
Fairness;
Outcome or Result;
Behavior;
Identity;
Power and Influence;