Publication details

The legitimizing roles of respectful treatment and direct democracy in collective decision-making : A school-based study

Investor logo
Authors

ŠEREK Jan SERYJOVÁ JUHOVÁ Dana LOMIČOVÁ Lucie

Year of publication 2022
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Journal of Applied Social Psychology
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Social Studies

Citation
Web https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12839
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12839
Keywords collective decision-making; direct democracy; interpersonal treatment; legitimacy; outcome favorability
Attached files
Description According to the procedural justice approach, people tend to view authoritative decision-making as legitimate if it includes their voice and if they are treated with respect, even when the outcomes are unfavorable. However, previous research suggests that the application of these effects to collective decision-making is less straightforward. Therefore, this study investigates whether people's willingness to accept a collective decision is increased by two procedural aspects: the opportunity to directly vote on the outcome and respectful treatment from peers during the decision-making process. Moreover, we ask whether the effects are moderated by outcome favorability. A study was conducted in their classrooms on 395 Czech high school students (aged 18–20, 60% females) who used a randomly prescribed procedure (direct vote, or expert decision) to decide on the use of a sum of money. Respectful treatment was measured through students’ perceptions during the decision-making process. Results showed that while direct voting did not increase participants’ willingness to accept the outcome, perceived respectful treatment did. However, the positive effect of respectful treatment was present only among participants who were clearly dissatisfied with the outcome (i.e., it compensated for the lack of outcome favorability). Participants who perceived the outcome as favorable or had no clear preference between the alternatives were willing to accept the outcome despite the perception of not having been treated respectfully.
Related projects:

You are running an old browser version. We recommend updating your browser to its latest version.

More info