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  • Essay / The role of empathy in the justice system

    One of the health psychological functions that help people share their emotions and opinions with other people and display more altruistic and cooperative behaviors towards the others is empathy (Cropanzano et al, 2017). Some social psychology researchers have emphasized the role of empathy in morality (e.g. Batson 2009; Eisenberg and Fabes 1990; Tyler et al. 1997; Wispe 1986). Yip and Schweitzer (2016) found that empathy mediates the relationship between anger and deception. Low levels of empathy toward organizations have a strong impact on the link between anger and unethical behavior. Angry people are more likely to engage in unethical behavior depending on their level of empathy toward the organization. Additional evidence has shown that empathy increases employees' caution toward judgments of justice and decreases their intention to blame victims due to their own moral conditions (e.g., Aderman et al., 1974; Patient and Skarlicki, 2010). In another study, Cropanzano, Massaro, and Becker (2017) showed that individuals' efforts to apply the rules of justice are related to their cognitive and affective empathy toward another person or organization, such that the likelihood of their efforts to applying the rules of justice increases when they experience cognitive and affective empathy towards the organization. Cognitive empathy refers to understanding the feelings and thinking of others through deliberative thinking. While affective empathy involves sharing emotional experiences with other people such as colleagues in the organization (Walter, 2012). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayOther mediators and moderators of the relationship between organizational injustice and ethical/unethical behavior Moral identity is a moderator between injustice and unethical behavior. People who have experienced injustice have greater intentions to engage in unethical behavior depending on their level of moral identity. Moral identity diminishes the effects of injustice on unethical behavior. In addition, other results show that managers with high moral identity are more motivated to want to penalize wrongdoers such as colleagues who behave unfairly (Skarlicki and Rupp 2010). With a focus on different aspects of justice/injustice, researchers have referred to some of the moderators and mediators in distributive justice, such as personality factors, fairness sensitivity, a construct that refers sensitivity to capture differences between input/output (Huseman, HatWeld, & Miles, 1987) and motivation (Zapata-Phelan, Colquitt, Scott, & Livingston, 2009). Regarding the moderators of procedural justice, we have mentioned the locus of control (Sweeney, McFarlin and Cotton, 1991), delay of gratification (Joy and Witt, 1992), sensitivity to injustice (SBI; Schmitt and Dorfel , 1999), self-esteem (Brockner et al., 1998) and exchange ideology (Witt, Kacmar and Andrews, 2001), as well as belief in a just world (Hagedoorn, Buunk and van de Vliert , 2002). Additionally, some of the moderators of interactional justice are agreeableness (Skarlicki et al., 1999) and self-esteem (Heuer, Blumenthal, Douglas, & Weinblatt, 1999). Regarding integrative theories (called the “integrative wave” of the legal literature; Colquitt et al., 2005), researchers have indicated a propensity for trust,)., 2006).