Suggests that, although individuals are motivated to maximize personal interests, they are also influenced by a sense of interdependence and presupposed equitable relationship with others. Given that inequity is ineffable, the rupture of that norm of fairness lead to a paradoxical distress for both the overadvantaged (retaliation distress) part as well the underadvantaged (self-concept distress) one, in order to restore actual or psychological equity.
Organized by Elain and William Walster in 1975.