Introduction

These expressions remind us of an important lesson: Our reactions to life experiences depend on the outcomes we receive, or what happens, and the processes associated with those outcomes, or how things happen. We generally react better to events and decisions when our outcomes are more favorable or fair and when the procedures associated with those outcomes are implemented more fairly. It all sounds simple and straightforward. Indeed, consider yet another everyday life expression that people sometimes use to describe instances in which they have been treated especially badly by another party: “To add insult to injury …” (my emphasis added), which essentially amounts to the perception of having received an unfavorable outcome (injury) accompanied by an unfair process (insult).