Reactions to Outgroup Authorities' Decisions: The Role of Expected Bias, Procedural Fairness and Outcome Favorability

Tomas Ståhl (1) , Riël Vermunt (1) , Naomi Ellemers (2)

1 University of Skövde [Sweden]
2 Universiteit Leiden = Leiden University

It is argued here that expectations of bias (vs. no bias) play a key role in explaining reactions to decisions made by outgroup authorities. Two experiments demonstrate that decision acceptance (Experiment 1) and intentions to protest against an outgroup authority's decisions (Experiment 2) are affected by procedural fairness when the authority has a reputation of being unbiased, but not when the authority's reputation suggests bias. By contrast, some evidence is also found suggesting that reactions to an outgroup authority's decisions are affected by the favorability of the outcome when the authority has a reputation of being biased, but not when the authority has a reputation of being unbiased. Mediation analyses indicate that two different processes account for these effects.

Mots clés: authority reputation; expected bias; intergroup perception; outcome favorability; procedural justice

Tomas Ståhl, Riël Vermunt, Naomi Ellemers. Reactions to Outgroup Authorities' Decisions: The Role of Expected Bias, Procedural Fairness and Outcome Favorability. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 2008, 11 (3), pp.281-299. ⟨10.1177/1368430208090643⟩. ⟨hal-00571688⟩