A series of four studies investigated systematic dierences between actor and recipient interpretations and justice evaluations of negative incidents in interpersonal relationships. Due to a re®ned methodology, each negative incident was assessed both by the respective recipient and actor, and each participant reported incidents from both perspectives. The studies provided clear evidence of systematic recipient-actor dierences and showed that the quality of the relationship between the parties involved in the incidents can moderate the occurrence and shape of the dierences. Signi®cant gender dierences were found showing that women respond more accusingly than men in the role of the recipient and more defensively than men in the role of the actor. # 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.The present research deals with dierences in the interpretation and justice evaluation of negative behaviors and incidents in interpersonal relations. The focus is on dierences between individuals who obtain dierent perspectives with relation to a negative incident: the recipient, that is the individual who suers from the incident, and the actor, that is the individual who caused the incident in question. 1The main goals of our series of studies were to investigate whether any systematic dierences occur between actors' and recipients' interpretations and justice evaluations, what form they take, and whether the quality of the relationship between the