Using Factorial Surveys to Study Justice Perceptions: Five Methodological Problems of Attitudinal Justice Research

Abstract

DFG Research Center (SFB) "From Heterogeneities to Inequalities"Whether fat or thin, male or female, young or old -people are different. Alongside their physical features, they also differ in terms of nationality and ethnicity; in their cultural preferences, lifestyles, attitudes, orientations, and philosophies; in their competencies, qualifications, and traits; and in their professions. But how do such heterogeneities lead to social inequalities? What are the social mechanisms that underlie this process? These are the questions pursued by the DFG Research Center (Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB)) "From Heterogeneities to Inequalities" at Bielefeld University, which was approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as "SFB 882" on May 25, 2011.In the social sciences, research on inequality is dispersed across different research fields such as education, the labor market, equality, migration, health, or gender. One goal of the SFB is to integrate these fields, searching for common mechanisms in the emergence of inequality that can be compiled into a typology. More than fifty senior and junior researchers and the Bielefeld University Library are involved in the SFB. Along with sociologists, it brings together scholars from the Bielefeld University faculties of Business Administration and Economics, Educational Science, Health Science, and Law, as well as from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in Berlin and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In addition to carrying out research, the SFB is concerned to nurture new academic talent, and therefore provides doctoral training in its own integrated Research Training Group. A data infrastructure project has also been launched to archive, prepare, and disseminate the data gathered. We assume that individuals evaluate inequalities in terms of whether they consider them just, and that they hold particular attitudes toward justice because, and as long as, these help them to attain their fundamental goals and to solve, especially, the problems that arise through cooperation with other people (cooperative relations). As a result, attitudes on justice are not viewed either as rigidly stable orientations across the life span or as "Sunday best beliefs" i.e. short-lived opinions that are adjusted continuously to fit situational interests. Instead, they are regarded as being shaped by the opportunities for learning and making comparisons in different phases of the life course and different social contexts. ResearchThe goal of the project is to use longitudinal survey data to explain why individuals have particular notions of justice. The key aspect is taken to be changes in the social contextparticularly households, social networks, or workplaces -in which individuals are embedded across their life course. This is because social contexts offer opportunities to make social comparisons and engage in social learning, processes that are decisive in the formation of particular attitudes to justice. The project will test this empirically by setting up a special longitud...

Multiple categorization and intergroup bias: Examining the generalizability of three theories of intergroup relations.

“…There are several reasons to believe that social desirability is not a major concern for the validity of our findings. Factorial surveys repeatedly have been found to reduce social desirability bias, including when the topics of prejudice and discrimination are concerned (Armacost et al, 1991; Auspurg et al, 2014; Liebig, Sauer, & Friedhoff, 2015). This reduction in social desirability is most likely linked to the nature of the task: With a high number of factors to consider, it becomes increasingly difficult for the participants to manage their responses.…”

Fairness perceptions regarding in-work benefits: a survey experiment

“…Vignette studies are a well-established instrument in empirical justice research and in research on the perceived deservingness of welfare claimants (see e.g. Buss, 2019; Geiger, 2021, Liebig et al. , 2015).…”

Gender Bias in Justice Evaluations of Earnings: Evidence From Three Survey Experiments

“…Non-reflexive judgments, on the other hand, are not affected by conflicts of justice perceptions and individuals' own interests because people judge rewards by which they are not affected (especially when people evaluate fictitious others, as is the case in factorial survey studies). Non-reflexive judgments are, therefore, well suited to investigate justice attitudes and unconscious gender bias in judgments [for a review of the research on non-reflexive justice attitudes using factorial surveys, see Liebig et al (2015)].…”