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What’s in a Word? Just vs. Fair vs. Appropriate Earnings for Self and Others

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  • Adriaans, Jule
  • Liebig, Stefan
  • Sabbagh, Clara
  • Jasso, Guillermina

Abstract

Despite Rawls' famous call to distinguish between justice and fairness, these and other justice-related words often seem to be used interchangeably by both ordinary people and justice researchers. Based on a survey-embedded question wording experiment ( N = 4534) fielded in Germany as part of the GESIS Panel, we explore the effects of three justice words— "just," "fair," and "appropriate"—on the sense of justice about earnings for self and others. We observe differences in the just reward, justice evaluation, and justice consequences by justice word. For example, justice evaluations of one's own earnings are more negative, i.e., deeper in the underreward territory, signaling larger just rewards, when using "just" instead of "fair" or "appropriate" in the question wording. No such clear pattern emerges for justice evaluations of others' earnings. Our analyses show the decreasing effect of an underreward situation on psychosocial health to be significantly stronger in the "just" condition compared to the "fair" condition but do not reveal differential consequences by justice word for measures of satisfaction and trust. Overall, the observed differences by justice words are moderate in size. Nonetheless, our findings suggest caution for justice researchers in communicating with peers and respondents and warrant further inquiry extending research on the role of "justice language" to other language–country contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Adriaans, Jule & Liebig, Stefan & Sabbagh, Clara & Jasso, Guillermina, 2021. "What’s in a Word? Just vs. Fair vs. Appropriate Earnings for Self and Others," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 397-427.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:250058
    DOI: 10.1007/s11211-021-00380-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    3. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Marion Fortin & Martin Fellenz, 2008. "Hypocrisies of Fairness: Towards a More Reflexive Ethical Base in Organizational Justice Research and Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 78(3), pages 415-433, March.
    5. Jasso, Guillermina, 2007. "Studying Justice: Measurement, Estimation, and Analysis of the Actual Reward and the Just Reward," IZA Discussion Papers 2592, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Alesina, Alberto & La Ferrara, Eliana, 2002. "Who trusts others?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 207-234, August.
    7. Jule Adriaans & Stefan Liebig, 2018. "Inequality of Earnings in Germany Generally Accepted but Low Incomes Considered Unfair," DIW Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 8(37), pages 347-352.
    8. Sebastian Hülle & Stefan Liebig & Meike Janina May, 2018. "Measuring Attitudes Toward Distributive Justice: The Basic Social Justice Orientations Scale," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 663-692, April.
    9. Jule Adriaans & Philipp Eisnecker & Stefan Liebig, 2019. "A Comparison of Earnings Justice throughout Europe: Widespread Approval in Germany for Income Distribution According to Need and Equity," DIW Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 9(44/45), pages 397-404.
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