What are we talking about when we talk about no-voice procedures? On the psychology of the fair outcome effect

The most generally accepted and best documented manipulation in procedural justice experiments is varying whether participants are allowed an opportun ity to voice their opinion about a decision. In the present article, a dist inction is made between two types of no-voice procedures-those in which a p erson is not informed about possible voice opportunities and hence implicit ly is not allowed a voice (implicit no-voice procedure) and those in which a person is explicitly told that he or she does not have voice opportunitie s (explicit no-voice procedure). I focus on the effect perceived outcome fa irness may have on judgments of procedural fairness (fair outcome effect). On the basis of fairness heuristic theory, I argue that when information ab out procedure is not available las in the case of implicit no-voice procedu res), people may find it difficult to decide how they should judge the proc edure, and they therefore use the fairness of their outcome to assess how t o respond to the procedure. As a result, the procedural judgments of these people show strong fair outcome effects. However, persons who are explicitl y denied voice do have explicit information about procedure and hence have to rely less on outcome information, yielding weaker fair outcome effects o n procedural judgments. Findings of two experiments provide supportive evid ence for this line of reasoning. Implications for our understanding of the psychology of social justice in general and the fair outcome effect in part icular are discussed. (C) 1999 Academic Press.