Procedural context and culture: Variation in the antecedents of procedural justice judgments.
Twenty-five years ago the social psychological study of procedural justice judgments began with the discovery that different dispute resolution procedures engender quite different fairness judgments, regardless of the outcome of the dispute. John Thibaut, Laurens Walker, and their students found that disputing procedures that grant disputants the opportunity to express their views and argue their case are seen as fairer than procedures that deny disputants this opportunity, even when the procedure results in poor outcomes (Walker, LaTour, Lind, & Thibaut, 1974; see Thibaut & Walker, 1975, and Lind & Tyler, 1988, chap. 2). The finding took on particular importance when research showed that procedural justice judgments play a very substantial role in determining which procedures are preferred by disputants (Thibaut, Walker, LaTour, & Houlden, 1974) and how satisfied the disputants are with the ultimate resolution of