A social categorization approach to distributive justice: Social identity as the link between relevance of inputs and need for justice

What are relevant inputs or criteria for judging entitlements in a given situation? As will be argued, an answer to this central problem of distributive justice must consider the perceiver's self-definition and structuring of the social context, in terms of social categorizations. The construal of the primary category of potential recipients is particularly important as its prototypical dimensions are likely criteria for entitlement judgments. Its representation depends on the perceiver's salient identity. Two studies yielded support for this perspective. In Study 1, students regarded their psychology department's distinctive quality as more important for psychologists than an out-group's quality. When highly identified, they perceived a psychologist who outperformed another on the in-group quality to have a higher entitlement to a job. In Study 2, German participants regarded the European Union's (EU) denial of EU membership to Turkey as more just the more prototypically European they thought Germany was, in contrast to Turkey; and, in turn, they did so the more strongly they identified as Germans. The findings suggest that relevance of inputs and, thus, the justice motive are based on identity concerns.