Research Interests

My general interests are in social psychology and human motivation. My current research is mainly concerned with the social psychology of justice. In particular I am interested in developing a structural model of deservingness, in investigating differences between deservingness and entitlement, and in analysing variables that influence judgments of legitimacy. I also conduct research on "tall poppies" or high achievers, focusing in recent research on cognitive judgments of deservingness and the emotions of envy and resentment as variables that may determine whether or not a tall poppy is cut down to size and affective reactions of schadenfreude and sympathy and to a tall poppies fall.

Selected Publications

Feather, N. T. (1999). Values, achievement, and justice: Studies in the psychology of deservingness. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.

Feather, N. T., & Sherman, R. (2002). Envy, resentment, Schadenfreude, and sympathy: Reactions to deserved and undeserved achievement and subsequent failure. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 953-961.

Feather, N. T. (2003). Distinguishing between deservingness and entitlement: Earned outcomes versus lawful outcomes. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 367-385.

Feather, N. T. (2003). Values and deservingness in the context of organizations. In S. W. Gilliland, D. K. Steiner, & D. P. Skarliki (Eds.), Emerging perspectives on values in organizations. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Feather, N. T. (2004). Value correlations of ambivalent attitudes toward gender relations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 3-12.

Feather, N. T. (2006). Deservingness and emotions: Applying the structural model of deservingness to the analysis of affective reactions to outcomes. European Review of Psychology, 17(1), 38-73.

Feather, N. T., & McKee, I. R. (2009). Differentiating emotions in relation to deserved or undeserved outcomes: A retrospective study of real-life events. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 955-977.