Justice sensitivity and distributive decisions in experimental games

The concept of justice sensitivity has been introduced as a personality disposition by Schmitt, Neumann and Montada (1995) and is supposed to explain inter-individual differences in reactions to unfair situations. Justice sensitivity can be differentiated in three subdimensions: (1) Sensitivity with regard to experiencing injustice towards oneself (JS(Victim)), (2) sensitivity to observing that others are treated unfairly (JS(Observer)) and, (3) sensitivity to profiting from unfair events (JS(Perpetrator)). Using a sample of 190 university students the three dimensions of justice sensitivity were used to predict decisions in a number of game theoretical paradigms (dictator games, ultimatum games and a combination of these two games). The higher respondents scored on both JSObserver and JSPerpetrator, the more their decisions followed norms of equality. The contrary was true for JS(victim). The implications of these findings for future research using the concept of justice sensitivity are discussed. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Ltd.