Sometimes unfair procedures have nice aspects: On the psychology of the fair process effect

This article focuses on the psychology of the fair process effect (the freq uently replicated finding that perceived procedural fairness positively aff ects people's reactions). It is argued that when people receive an unfavora ble outcome, they may start looking for causes that explain why they receiv ed this outcome. Furthermore, the authors propose that unfair procedures pr ovide an opportunity to attribute one's unfavorable outcome to external cau ses, whereas fair procedures do not. As a consequence, people may react mor e negatively after fair as opposed to unfair procedures (a reversal of the fair process effect). The findings of 3 experiments corroborate the authors ' line of reasoning and show that if unfavorable outcomes strongly instigat e attribution-seeking processes, a reversal of the fair process effect inde ed can be found. In this way, these findings show that sometimes unfair pro cedures have nice aspects.