Abstract: Research of “irrational” justice judgment profits from insights of dual-process theory of social cognition, literatures in uncertainty management and moral psychology. Individual’s justice judgment process may incorporate two distinctive cognitive systems differ in structure and evolution. 6 main forms of irrationality are discerned: substitutability process, primacy effects, extreme judgment, compensation bias, innocent victim blaming and moral mandate effect. Apart from situational factors like uncertainty and threatening situation, individual differences in moral identity, belief in just world and emotional state also have great impact on different forms of irrationality. In conclusion, the existing body of knowledge about irrational justice judgment are from many different fields of study. An integrated theoretical explanation and combined influence of factors at different levels are called for in the future, including its evolutionary origin, neural bases, and how it interacts with rational processes. The third party perspective and social reality approach are proposed as the direction of the future research.

Key words: justice judgment, irrationality, just world belief, dual processing, moral conviction