Perception of economic distributive justice: Exploring leading theories

In this study we assessed the power of 4 theories in predicting individuals’ perception of economic distributive justice: self-interest theory, belief in a just world, attribution theory, and ideology. On the basis of a community survey of 487 adults, regression analyses showed that self-interest theory and belief in a just world provided moderate predictions of economic distributive justice perception; and attribution theory and ideology yielded the strongest predictions. This finding has implications for future theoretical development.