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Social evaluations of fair and unfair allocators in interpersonal and intergroup situations
Author(s) -
Platow Michael J.,
O'Connell Aaron,
Shave Roger,
Hanning Peter
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1995.tb01071.x
Subject(s) - allocator , psychology , social psychology , social identity theory , interpersonal communication , distributive justice , ingroups and outgroups , in group favoritism , social group , economic justice , law , computer science , political science , operating system
Based on social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and distributive justice norms (Walster, Berscheid & Walster, 1976), hypotheses were set forth outlining expected changes in social evaluations of resource allocators with changes from interpersonal to intergroup situations. In interpersonal situations, fair allocators were expected to be more favourably evaluated than unfair allocators. This difference was expected to decrease, however, in weak intergroup situations (intergroup attenuation hypothesis) and reverse in strong intergroup situations (intergroup reversal hypothesis). In Expt 1 ( N = 126), support for the former hypothesis was predicted and found in the minimal group paradigm. In Expt 2 ( N = 82), support for the latter hypothesis was predicted and found following actual intergroup confrontation. In Expt 3 ( N = 128), neither hypothesis was supported when the target and the recipients were out‐group members. The discussion extends these hypotheses to other group processes such as leadership endorsement and social influence.