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Justice Beliefs, Personal Well-Being and Harsh Social Attitudes: Initial Demonstration of a Polynomial Regression and Response Surface Methodology

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Abstract

Tendencies to believe in justice are multidimensional and include beliefs that the world is fair to one’s self (personal justice beliefs) as well as to others (general justice beliefs). Previous research suggests that personal and general justice beliefs are divergently linked to well-being and harsh social attitudes, respectively. However, whether and how these justice tendencies conjointly affect well-being and harsh social attitudes is less well known. Guided by equity theory, the current study used polynomial regression and surface response methodology to demonstrate how specific discrepancies between justice beliefs for self and others predict personal well-being and harsh social attitudes. Participants (N = 1079) completed measures of tendencies to believe in personal and general justice, as well as measures of physical symptoms associated with illness and attitudes towards the poor. Results suggested that discrepancy between personal and general justice beliefs had detrimental effects on these outcomes (i.e., higher number of illness symptoms and harsher attitudes towards the poor). Moreover, discrepancy resulting from a strong belief in general justice and a weak belief in personal justice (i.e., other-favorable discrepancy) was more strongly negatively associated with well-being and positively associated with harsh attitudes towards the poor than discrepancy resulting from a strong personal justice belief and a weak general justice belief (i.e., self-favorable discrepancy). The current research highlights the potential for personal and general justice beliefs to conjointly predict well-being and social attitudes, while simultaneously demonstrating the capacity to better understand these interactive relationships through the use of surface response methodology.

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Notes

  1. Because the polynomial regressions test joint effects of two predictors, we centered all of the predictors around the midpoint of their scales to facilitate interpretation of the results, and all the analyses were conducted with these centered predictors (Aiken and West 1991; Edwards 2002).

  2. In this study we calculated the surface coefficients and their significance levels using the excel spreadsheet provided and described in Shanock et al. (2010) article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, Booth University College, 447 Webb Pl, Winnipeg, MB, R3B2P2, Canada

    Ludmila Zhdanova

  2. Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Wayne State University, 3939 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA

    Todd Lucas

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  1. Ludmila Zhdanova
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  2. Todd Lucas
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Correspondence to Ludmila Zhdanova.

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Portions of this research were supported by the annual Statewide Survey of Michigan Residents conducted by the Center for Urban Studies (Wayne State University) and a Wayne State University Research Enhancement Grant, awarded to the second author.

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Zhdanova, L., Lucas, T. Justice Beliefs, Personal Well-Being and Harsh Social Attitudes: Initial Demonstration of a Polynomial Regression and Response Surface Methodology. Curr Psychol 35, 615–624 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9328-8

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