Cognitive Processes Involved in Justice Sensitivity: Selective Information Search

Correlational studies have repeatedly shown that justice sensitivity is linked with stronger emotional and behavioral reactions following an unjust event. The cognitive processes that transmit these effects are still largely unknown. The present paper investigates whether people high in justice sensitivity differ from people low in justice sensitivity in how they select information when required to make a justice judgment. Ninety-six students read one of two scenarios about an unfair allocation of money. Afterwards they were asked to pick from a list of questions that were relevant to only one of the scenarios. Participants high in justice sensitivity picked more relevant questions than people low in justice sensitivity. This effect does not reflect a motivated bias to detect injustice. Results suggest that a variable that we have named "selective information search' is part of the cognitive processes that transform justice sensitivity into behavior.