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<p>Research supporting the deontic model of justice demonstrates that employees experience anger at the mistreatment of coworkers and seek to restore justice on their behalf. However, this research has focused on situations in which third parties know what happened in the incident, such as when they witness the mistreatment. In contrast, when third parties receive a <i>claim</i> of unfairness, they lack knowledge about what happened and may question the veracity of the claim, thereby attenuating their deontic reactions. We integrate the deontic model of justice with fairness heuristic theory to predict that third parties’ overall fairness perceptions will serve as a lens through which claims of unfairness are interpreted. Perceptions of one’s organization as generally fair will be negatively related to perceived claim veracity, which in turn reduces third-party anger and the desire to restore justice. In two preregistered studies (<i>N</i>s = 286 and 394) using a complementary mix of correlational and experimental designs, we found support for our hypotheses. We also show that the negative indirect effect of overall fairness perceptions on third-party reactions is attenuated when the claim is corroborated. In total, the current research highlights the pivotal role of perceived claim veracity in explaining third-party reactions to claims of unfairness. More broadly, it suggests that holding the view of one’s organization as generally fair may have paradoxical effects by reducing third-party support for another member of the organization who has experienced unfairness.</p>

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Making Sense of Claims of Unfairness: Third-Party Overall Fairness Perceptions Negatively Affect Claim Veracity and Deontic Reactions

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月29日

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  • Midori Nishioka,
  • D. Ramona Bobocel,
  • James W. Beck

摘要

Research supporting the deontic model of justice demonstrates that employees experience anger at the mistreatment of coworkers and seek to restore justice on their behalf. However, this research has focused on situations in which third parties know what happened in the incident, such as when they witness the mistreatment. In contrast, when third parties receive a claim of unfairness, they lack knowledge about what happened and may question the veracity of the claim, thereby attenuating their deontic reactions. We integrate the deontic model of justice with fairness heuristic theory to predict that third parties’ overall fairness perceptions will serve as a lens through which claims of unfairness are interpreted. Perceptions of one’s organization as generally fair will be negatively related to perceived claim veracity, which in turn reduces third-party anger and the desire to restore justice. In two preregistered studies (Ns = 286 and 394) using a complementary mix of correlational and experimental designs, we found support for our hypotheses. We also show that the negative indirect effect of overall fairness perceptions on third-party reactions is attenuated when the claim is corroborated. In total, the current research highlights the pivotal role of perceived claim veracity in explaining third-party reactions to claims of unfairness. More broadly, it suggests that holding the view of one’s organization as generally fair may have paradoxical effects by reducing third-party support for another member of the organization who has experienced unfairness.