Uncertainty management: The influence of uncertainty salience on reactionsto perceived procedural fairness

On the basis of fairness heuristic theory, it is argued in this article tha t people especially need fairness when they are reminded about aspects of t heir lives that make them uncertain. It is therefore proposed that thinking about uncertainty should make fairness a more important issue to people. T he findings of 3 experiments support this line of reasoning: Asking (vs. no t asking) participants 2 questions that solicited their thoughts and feelin gs of being uncertain led to stronger effect, of perceived procedural fairn ess on participants' affective reactions toward the way they were treated. It is argued that these findings suggest that fairness matters to people es pecially when they are trying to deal with things that make them uncertain. An implication of the cur-rent findings therefore may be that fairness is important to people because it gives them an opportunity to manage uncertai n aspects of their lives.