The impact of variability on social justice perception: higher variability leads to higher perceived social justice

The current era is characterized by an increase in variability, which merits attention with regard to its influence on the perception of social justice. This study investigated the effects of variability and its positive or negative qualities on social justice perception. This was achieved through the pre-experimental preparation of materials and formal experimental manipulation. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: high variability—positive, low variability—positive, high variability—negative, and low variability—negative. The results suggest that (1) variability significantly affects social justice perception, which means that social justice perception is greater in high-variability conditions than in low-variability conditions; (2) the quality of variability does not have an independent effect on social justice perception, but there is an interaction; and (3) in low variability—negative conditions, the social justice perception is lowest. The current study provides an empirical basis for understanding people's perceptions of social justice in the context of great change.