Beyond Justice Perceptions: The Role of Interpersonal Justice Trajectories and Social Class in Perceived Legitimacy of Authority Figures.

Juan Liang,Xiaoyun Chen,Yaxin Wang,Tian Li

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.595731

Abstract

There is considerable evidence that the experience of justice is associated with perceived legitimacy of authority, but there has been no research about this association when considering past rather than current fairness. Based on the fairness heuristic theory, we tested the hypothesis that interpersonal justice trajectories positively affect perceived legitimacy of the authority; we also tested whether social class moderated this effect. Community residents (N = 111; 54 women) rated the authority's fairness on 16 consecutive weeks and rated perceived legitimacy on the 16th week. The results of latent growth modeling showed that the trajectory of interpersonal justice scores leading up to the final week significantly predicted perceived legitimacy, regardless of the current experience of interpersonal fairness. Tests of moderation showed that the legitimacy perceptions of individuals of lower subjective social class were significantly affected by interpersonal justice trajectories, whereas this was not the case among individuals of higher subjective social class. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for research on perceived legitimacy and justice, as well as their implications for understanding social class.

Highlights

While it is possible for authorities to shape the gains and losses of others by using power to sanction and to provide incentives, theorists, and authorities have recognized that influence over others based solely on the possession of power is costly and inefficient (Tyler, 2006)
The results showed a significant interaction between interpersonal justice trajectory and subjective social class in predicting perceptions of legitimacy (b = −0.54, SE = 0.21, t = −2.51, p < 0.05)
While previous research has shown that social class influences diverse domains that include subjective well-being (e.g., Yu and Blader, 2019), prosocial behavior (e.g., Kraus et al, 2017), unethical behavior (e.g., Dubois et al, 2015), and cognitive performance (e.g., Nisbett et al, 2001), our findings suggest that subjective social class may play a significant role in the formation of legitimacy perceptions and in the justice trajectory effect—topics that have received little attention to date

Summary

Introduction

While it is possible for authorities to shape the gains and losses of others by using power to sanction and to provide incentives, theorists, and authorities have recognized that influence over others based solely on the possession of power is costly and inefficient (Tyler, 2006). When authorities use Justice Trajectories and Legitimacy fair procedures to make decisions (i.e., procedural justice), make fairly distributive decisions (i.e., distributive justice), or treat individuals with dignity (i.e., interpersonal justice), individuals are more likely to perceive high legitimacy (e.g., Tyler and Jackson, 2014). This empirical relationship between fairness and perceived legitimacy is evident in many contexts, such as political (e.g., Van der Toorn et al, 2011; Murphy, 2014), organizational (e.g., Blader and Tyler, 2005; Treviño et al, 2014), legal (e.g., Tyler and Jackson, 2014), and educational settings (e.g., Treviño et al, 2014; Liang and Li, 2019). The current study addressed this issue by investigating temporal dynamics of relations between justice and perceived legitimacy over time

Results

Discussion

Conclusion