Abstract
Central to equity and distributive justice theories is the assumption that reward inequities produce feelings of distress and that such feelings motivate efforts to reduce the perceived injustice. Physiological arousal under such conditions would provide direct evidence of injustice distress. To date, no such evidence exists. In the present study, a skin conductance measure was obtained for subjects receiving either just or unjust allocations in a pay-forwork setting. As expected, heightened arousal occurred (relative to baseline levels) in underpay and overpay conditions, with no such effect in a just-pay condition. It was also predicted and found that heart rate—more an index of somatic activity than distress—did not discriminate among experimental conditions. The implications of these results for theoretical development and applied research are discussed.
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