Description

This volume argues that the commitment to justice is a fundamental motive and that it sometimes takes priority over self-interest. This volume argues that the commitment to justice is a fundamental motive and that, although it is typically portrayed as serving self-interest, it sometimes takes priority over self-interest. The authors present a model that describes the ways in which motives of justice and self-interest are integrated in people's lives. This volume argues that the commitment to justice is a fundamental motive and that, although it is typically portrayed as serving self-interest, it sometimes takes priority over self-interest. The authors present a model that describes the ways in which motives of justice and self-interest are integrated in people's lives. This volume argues that the commitment to justice is a fundamental motive and that, although it is typically portrayed as serving self-interest, it sometimes takes priority over self-interest. To make this case, the authors discuss the way justice emerges as a personal contract in children's development; review a wide range of research studying the influences of the justice motive on evaluative, emotional and behavioral responses; and detail common experiences that illustrate the impact of the justice motive. Through an extensive critique of the research on which some alternative models of justice are based, the authors present a model that describes the ways in which motives of justice and self-interest are integrated in people's lives. They close with a discussion of some positive and negative consequences of the commitment to justice. 1. Contesting the primacy of self-interest; 2. Why does justice matter? The development of a personal contract; 3. Commitment to justice: the initial primary automatic reaction; 4. Explaining the myth of self-interest; 5. Defining the justice motive: re-integrating procedural and distributive justice; 6. How people assess deserving and justice: the role of social norms; 7. Integrating justice and self-interest: a tentative model; 8. Maintaining the commitment to justice in a complex world; 9. Bringing it closer to home: justice in another 'American tragedy'; 10. Emotional aftereffects: some negative consequences and thoughts on how to avoid them. “Given the broad acceptance of capitalist philosophy in most of the developed and developing world, one could expect that self-interest motives would be used to explain all sorts of human interactions with others. Further, it could be expected that such explanations would be readily accepted. Are there no situations where humans act to provide or restore justice to others without benefit to themselves? Lerner and Clayton’s work emphatically says ‘yes, there certainly are many such situations.’ The authors apply careful scientific analyses to studies purporting to support the self-interest explanation and dismantle them with surgical precision. They show that people's actions can stem from justice-seeking motives and not solely from strict self-interest.”
– Selwyn Becker, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Booth School of Business
“In a wide-ranging examination of research and theory, Lerner and Clayton provide new insights on the development and primacy of the justice motive, distinguishing it from self-interest and challenging conventional interpretations of well-known, highly regarded research on forms of justice and self-interest.”
– Ronald C. Dillehay, University