Premium
Gender, mood state, and justice preference: Do mood states moderate gender‐based norms of justice?
Author(s) -
Inness Michelle,
Desmarais Serge,
Day Arla
Publication year - 2005
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 - 10.1348/014466604x17443
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , mood , distributive justice , economic justice , task (project management) , preference , payment , neoclassical economics , management , world wide web , computer science , economics , microeconomics
The present study extends research on distributive justice by investigating whether a person‘s mood state moderates the robust effects of gender norms on allocation decisions. One hundred and eighty undergraduates (90 men: 90 women) were asked to undergo a mood induction procedure in which they were randomly assigned to a positive, negative, or neutral mood condition, and to work on a task with either a male or female co‐worker (confederate). This resulted in a 2 (gender of participant) × 2 (gender of confederate) × 3 (positive vs. neutral vs. negative mood) between‐subjects factorial design. Following completion of the task, participants were informed that they did 60% of the work and their co‐worker did 40%. They were then asked to divide money between themselves and their co‐worker in a way that they considered fair. The analysis revealed a three‐way interaction in participants self‐payment whereby men in a negative mood, working with other men took more pay for themselves than did particpants in all other conditions. Specifically, 60% of the participants in this condition, allocated the payment either equitably or in a manner suggesting even greater self‐interest. These results support the view that gender effects are strongly influenced by the presence of other relevant contextual cues.