Human beings are responsive to fairness violations. People reject unfair
offers and go out of their way to punish those who behave unfairly.
However, little is known regarding when unfair treatment can either help or
harm performance. We found that basketball players were more likely to make
free throws after being awarded a foul specific to unfair treatment (Study
1). Similarly, hockey players were more likely to score during a penalty
shot compared to a shootout (Study 2). A laboratory experiment showed that
participants were more accurate at golf putting after a previous attempt
had been unfairly nullified (Study 3). However, a final experiment
revealed that when the task was more demanding, unfair treatment resulted
in worse performance (Study 4). Moreover, this effect was mediated by
feelings of anger and frustration. These results suggest that performance
is sensitive to perceptions of fairness and justice.
Link to final version of article: [http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-015-9539-1][1]
[1]: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-015-9539-1