We report the results of three experiments studying the effects of sta
tus, power; and validity of justifications on the propriety of acts by
an actor who violated expectations, with untoward consequences for an
other In the first experiment we varied status and the validity of ju
stifications for violating expectations; we found that propriety was p
roportional to validity and status interacted with validity. Status wa
s an advantage when justifications were unambiguously valid, and even
more so when they were ambiguously valid but a liability when they wer
e unambiguously invalid. In the second experiment we varied power, and
found that it strongly affected public but not private acceptance of
invalid justifications. In the third experiment we also studied accept
ance of invalid justifications, varying both status and power We found
that status legitimated power giving high status and high power an ef
fect on private acceptance of justifications that power lacked without
status.