Referent cognitions and task decision autonomy: beyond equity theory

A laboratory experiment was conducted to test referent cognitions theory, which integrates distributive and procedural justice. Undergraduates worked on two tasks knowing that performance scores from only one of these would count toward their chances for earning a reward. In the subject-decision conditions, the students selected (prior to knowledge about their performance) which task would count. The experimenter selected the crucial task in the experimenter-decision conditions. Feedback from the task that did not count indicated to subjects in high-referent conditions that they would have won the reward if these scores had counted, whereas subjects in low-referent conditions learned they would have lost no matter which set of scores counted. All subjects 'lost' on the task that counted. Only subjects in the high-referent, experimenter-decision condition subsequently expressed feelings of unfair treatment. The results are discussed in terms of limitations to equity theory. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)