Effects of justice conditions on discrete emotions

Research on organizational justice typically focuses on attitudinal, cognit ive, or behavioral outcomes. Emotional reactions to justice have been sugge sted but not studied. The emotional appraisal literature provides a framewo rk within which to analyze emotional reactions to just and unjust events. U ndergraduates (67 females and 55 males) were randomly assigned to condition s crossing either a positive or negative outcome and a procedure which was either fair, biased in the participant's favor, or biased in favor of anoth er, after which their emotional responses were assessed by self report. Res ults support predictions about discrete emotional reactions. As predicted b y emotional-appraisal theories, reports of happiness were influenced only b y outcome, whereas reports of guilt, anger, and to a lesser extent pride, w ere influenced by specific combinations of outcome and procedure. Results a re discussed within an emotional appraisal framework.