Contents Sensitivity to Befallen

The study investigates the construct validity of a self-report questionnaire for dispositional sensitivity to befallen injustice (SBI; Schmitt, Neumann, & Montada, 1995). The items are combinations of four indicators of SBI (frequency of perceived injustice, intensity of anger, intrusiveness/perseverance of thoughts about the event, punitivity) with various types of unfair situations (e.g., performing better than others without getting any appreciation or reward). At Occasion 1, SBI, trait anger, anger in, anger out, anger control, self-assertiveness, belief in a just world, and attitudes towards principles of distributive justice (equity, equality, need) were measured. At Occasion 2, the subjects (55 advanced psychology students) took part in a lottery for distributing scarce teaching resources among students. The lottery lead to objective advantages for some students and to objective disadvantages to others. Four reactions to the event were measured at Occasion 3: judgment of the lottery as just, anger about the lottery, experiencing the lottery as demotivating, and approval of activities against the lottery. These reactions were regressed on the variables measured at Occasion 1. SBI was the only significant predictor of the justice judgment and the approval of activities. Anger about the lottery depended only on objective disadvantage/advantage. Experiencing the lottery as demotivating depended negatively on anger control and positively on the intrusiveness/perseverance of thoughts about the event, a subscale of the SBI inventory. Inconclusive interaction effects of belief in a just world x objective advantage/disadvantage on anger and approval of activities were found.