Need-Based Justice and Communication in Social Exchange Networks

Distributive justice, in particular the satisfaction of needs, influence the stability of society and individual social relations. Issues in present daily politics, such as minimum wages, the accommodation of refugees, or health care provision are essentially questions of distributive justice and highlight the importance of the need principle. In this paper I investigate the proposition that the choice of a justice principle is influenced by the form of the social relationship in which resources of any kind are distributed. The need -principle should be most important in close social relationship and least important in distant and functional relationships (Miller 1999). I use laboratory experiments in the tradition of social exchange theory to test this proposition. The variation of relationship types is induced by different modes of matching, repeated interaction and (un)restricted communication. First results indicate that even in relatively ‘distant’ social exchange relations people are willing to forgo some of their individual profit to satisfy others’ need and that the need principle is more often applied in ‘closer’ social relationships. I further analyze the arguments brought forth during communication and analyze the content of these chats using qualitative content analysis, thus shedding light on possible contradictions of the application of distributive justice principles.