Our systems are now restored following recent technical disruption, and we’re working hard to catch up on publishing. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Find out more

Recommended product

Popular links

Popular links


Psychological Perspectives on Justice

Psychological Perspectives on Justice

Psychological Perspectives on Justice

Theory and Applications
Barbara A. Mellers, University of California, Berkeley
Jonathan Baron, University of Pennsylvania
November 2008
Paperback
9780521089982

    Justice, equity, and fairness are central concerns of everyday life, whether we are assessing the fairness of individual acts, social programmes, or institutional policies. This book explores how the distribution of costs and benefits determine our intuition about fairness and why individual behaviour sometimes deviates from normative theories of justice. To make any comparison, one must first state how fair distributions of resources or burdens should be made. Here, competing theories, such as utilitarianism and economic efficiency, are discussed. The chapters cover many topics including an investigation of various rules and heuristics that people use to make fair distributions; the motivation for people to conform to rules of fairness even when they conflict with self-interest; differences between the views of liberals and conservatives; societal rules for the distribution or allocation of critical or scarce resources; and implications for public policy. This mixture of theoretical and applied perspectives provides a balanced look at the psychology of justice.

    • Jonathan Baron is very well known in his field
    • Includes a contribution from the distinguished Jon Elster

    Reviews & endorsements

    "The present tightly edited volume provides innovative and rigorous additions to this growing body of theoretical and empirical work....although the present volume clearly illustrates the usefulness of a behavioral decision theory in the study of justice, its greatest contribution lies in demonstrating how social goals and strategies, such as the pursuit of justice and fairness influence judgments and decisions about the allocation of valued resources." Terry L. Boles and Charles G. McClintock, Contemporary Psychology

    "This edited volume is a splendid introduction to an important set of psychological studies in normative reasoning....These studies, and some of their implications, should indeed be grist for an ethicist's preferred theory of moral behavior." Ethics

    See more reviews

    Product details

    April 2011
    Adobe eBook Reader
    9780511512308
    0 pages
    0kg
    This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.

    Table of Contents

    • 1. Introductory remarks
    • Part I. Psychological Perspectives:
    • 2. Equality as a decision heuristic David Messick
    • 3. Two insights occasioned by attempts to pin down the equity formula Richard Harris
    • 4. Judgments of justice Maya Bar-Hillel and Menahem Yaari
    • Part II. Economic Perspectives:
    • 5. Justice in organised groups: comparing the self-interest and social identity perspectives Tom Tyler and Robyn Dawes
    • 6. Heuristics and biases in equity judgments: a utilitarian approach Jonathan Baron
    • 7. Tradeoffs in fairness and preference judgments Lisa Ordoñez and Barbara Mellers
    • 8. Information, fairness, and efficiency in bargaining Colin Camerer and George Loewenstein
    • Part III. Variations in Perspectives of Justice:
    • 9. The unfolding of justice: a developmental perspective on reward allocations Colleen Moore, Sheri E. Hembree, and Robert D. Enright
    • 10. Of Ants and Grasshoppers: the political psychology of allocating scarce resources Linda Skitka and Philip E. Tetlock
    • 11. Liberal and conservative approaches to justice: conflicting psychopolitical perspectives Philip E. Tetlock and Gregory Mitchell
    • Part IV. Policy Perspectives: Justice and the allocation of scarce resources Jon Elster
    • 12. Models of equity in public risk Rakesh Sarin
    • 13. Fairness of distributions of risks with applications to Antarctica Ivy Broder and Robin Keller
    • Part V: Postscript.
      Contributors
    • David Messick, Richard Harris, Maya Bar-Hillel, Menahem Yaari, Tom Tyler, Robyn Dawes, Jonathan Baron, Lisa Ordoñez, Barbara Mellers, Colin Camerer, George Loewenstein, Colleen Moore, Sheri E. Hembree, Robert D. Enright, Linda Skitka, Philip E. Tetlock, Gregory Mitchell, Jon Elster, Rakesh Sarin, Ivy Broder, Robin Keller

    • Editors
    • Barbara A. Mellers , University of California, Berkeley
    • Jonathan Baron , University of Pennsylvania