The injustices of others: Social reports and the integration of others' experiences in organizational justice judgments

Abstract

This research examines how people integrate social reports regarding another person's injustice experience into their own justice assessments. Specifically, we examine three variables—participant injustice experience, co-worker injustice severity, and prior contact with co-worker's supervisor—that influence the degree to which individuals express victim empathy (acceptance of the other's injustice report) and victim derogation (assigning at least some blame to the victim) when a co-worker reports an injustice experience. We hypothesized that personal experiences with injustice would facilitate victim empathy and that the severity of a co-worker's injustice report would simultaneously lead to victim empathy and victim derogation. We hypothesized that the effect of prior contact with co-worker supervisor on justice judgments would be moderated by personal experience and the severity of the co-worker's injustice experience. Results from the experiment confirm these predictions.