Reactions to Inequity III

Abstract

Two experiments were designed and performed to test an explanatory conjecture stated in an earlier paper. The conjecture says that dissonance (or cognitive imbalance) will occur among overrewarded participants in groups if, and only if, the overrewarded person is receiving or expects to receive indications of disapproval concerning how rewards are distributed in the group from an authority figure or an equitably rewarded group member. The experiments reported here used a modified Berger situation. The results tend to disconfirm the conjecture as stated. Various explana tions of the negative results arc discussed. Some further theoretical arguments concerning the nature and conse quences of inequity are presented. In spite of much experimental and other research, we do not possess much more trustworthy (replicable) information about equity processes than Homans did when he wrote Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. Some reasons for the empirical impasse are discussed.