How Sensitive Are You to Injustice?
When it happens to you, to someone else, in your favour, or by your hand
Everyone dislikes unfairness, but people differ a great deal in how quickly they notice it, how strongly they react and how long it stays with them. German researchers found that this sensitivity splits by perspective: being the one treated unfairly, watching it happen to someone else, profiting from it, and causing it. The four do not always travel together, and the split explains why two people who both 'care about fairness' can behave so differently.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Think about everyday unfairness - at work, in families, in queues, in the news - rather than one big event in your life.
What it measures
The four perspectives of justice sensitivity: as a victim, as an observer, as a beneficiary and as a perpetrator. It differs from moral foundations, which ask how much fairness matters to your moral judgements, and from rejection sensitivity, which is about fearing being left out rather than being treated unfairly.
Based on: Justice Sensitivity Inventory (Schmitt, Gollwitzer, Maes & Arbach, 2005; Schmitt et al., 2010)
Possible results
As the one wronged
How strongly you react when you are the one treated unfairly.
As an observer
How much unfairness to other people upsets you.
As the one who benefits
How uneasy you feel when an injustice works in your favour.
As the one responsible
How much it bothers you to treat someone else unfairly.
Common questions
Is high justice sensitivity a good thing?
It depends on which perspective. High observer and perpetrator sensitivity are linked to empathy, cooperation and fair dealing, and beneficiary sensitivity points in a similar direction. High sensitivity as the one wronged is more double-edged: it protects you from exploitation but goes with suspicion and holding back trust. The same overall concern for fairness can point outwards or inwards, which is why the four bars are scored separately.
Is justice sensitivity the same as moral foundations?
No. Moral foundations ask how much weight fairness carries when you judge what is right or wrong. Justice sensitivity asks how strongly you react when unfairness actually happens, and from which side. Someone can rate fairness as very important in principle and still barely notice when it works in their own favour.
Why would someone feel bad about benefiting from injustice?
Because for some people an unfair advantage feels like being part of the unfairness, even if they did nothing to cause it. Researchers added this perspective when they noticed it behaved differently from simply watching injustice: it involves your own gain, and so tests whether your sense of fairness holds when it costs you something.
Sources
- Schmitt, M., Gollwitzer, M., Maes, J., & Arbach, D. (2005). Justice Sensitivity. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. doi:10.1027/1015-5759.21.3.202
- Schmitt, M., Baumert, A., Gollwitzer, M., & Maes, J. (2010). The Justice Sensitivity Inventory: Factorial validity, location in the personality facet space, demographic pattern, and normative data. Social Justice Research. doi:10.1007/s11211-010-0115-2
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the Justice Sensitivity Inventory, so scores are not comparable to its published norms, which come mainly from German samples. The 2005 version had three perspectives; the beneficiary one was added later. Justice sensitivity is a normal personality trait, not a diagnosis, and a high first bar after a period of real unfair treatment is an understandable response rather than a fixed trait.