Justice

Justice principles affect how human interactions (procedural justice) and the outcomes of those interactions (distributive justice) are experienced by the participants. The willingness of those participants, who are often negotiators in a broad sense, to implement any decision taken as a result of the interaction is influenced by their assessment of the fairness or justice of the exchanges. To better understand how individuals develop concepts of justice, it is instructive to think of them in terms of the life span of human development because understanding justice begins in childhood and continues into adulthood. Furthermore, an individual’s preference for one type of distributive outcome rather than another is influenced by the culture in which that person was socialized. This entry reviews justice principles that shape the ...