Justice, Inequality, and the Joy of Discovery: The Contributions of Guillermina Jasso to Social Justice Research

Abstract

This essay—based on an interview with Guillermina Jasso, Silver Professor of Arts and Science and Professor of Sociology at New York University and recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Society for Justice Research—offers an in-depth reflection on her influential career in the social sciences. Spanning five decades of scholarship, Jasso’s work has shaped central debates on distributive justice, inequality, status, and sociobehavioral theory. In this essay, we review how Jasso has contributed to understanding what people think, say, and do when confronted with inequality, understood in a broad sense as the distribution of valued goods and burdens in society. We revisit some of Jasso’s early contributions in light of her account of their emergence, including her pioneering use of the factorial survey method to study fairness perceptions and the development of the justice evaluation function. Relying on Jasso’s reflections on her interdisciplinary trajectory across theory, methodology, and empirical analysis, as well as her profound engagement with mathematics and philosophy, we discuss her contributions to unifying three sociobehavioral forces—justice, status, and power—within a single theoretical framework. Finally, we provide a glimpse into the question of “where to go next?” drawing on Jasso’s reflections that emphasize the need for improved measurement, deeper formalization, and intellectual openness.