Abstract
We investigated whether people need to believe in a just world in part because such a belief helps people to work toward long-term goals and to do so in such a way that they are deserved. We assessed participants' long-term goal focus and also their commitment to deserving their outcomes (via a psychopathy scale). In a second session, participants were then exposed to a victim whose situation did or did not contradict a belief in a just world. When the victim's situation contradicted a belief in a just world, the greater the participants' tendency to focus on long-term outcomes, the more they blamed the victim for her misfortune; but this relation only occurred for participants with a strong commitment to deserving their outcomes (i.e., those low in psychopathy). The results are consistent with our argument that, given the function of the belief in a just world proposed in this article, people would have a greater need to preserve the belief (e.g., by blaming victims of injustice) the greater their investment in long-term and deserved outcomes.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Aiken, L. S., and West, S. G. (1991). Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions, Sage, Newbury Park, CA.
Cale, E. M., and Lilienfeld, S. O. (2002). Sex differences in psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder: A review and integration. Clin. Psychol. Rev. 22: 1179–1207.
Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., and Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 3rd edn., Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
Dalbert, C. (1999). The world is more just for me than generally: About the personal belief in a just world scale's validity. Soc. Justice Res. 12: 79–98.
Dalbert, C. (2001). The Justice Motive as a Personal Resource: Dealing with Challenges and Critical Life Events, Kluwer/Plenum, New York.
Dalbert, C., Lipkus, I., Sallay, H., and Goch, I. (2001). A just and an unjust world: Structure and validity of different world beliefs. Pers. Individ. Differ. 30: 561–577.
Elwood, C. E., Poythress, N. G., and Douglas, K. S. (2004). Evaluation of the Hare P-SCAN in a nonclinical population. Pers. Individ. Differ. 36: 833–843.
Feather, N. T. (1999). Values, Achievement, and Deservingness, Kluwer/Plenum, New York.
Feather, N. T. (2003). Distinguishing between deservingness and entitlement: Earned outcomes versus lawful outcomes. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 33: 367–385.
Feather, N. T., and Johnstone, C. (2001). Social norms, entitlement, and deservingness: Differential reactions to aggressive behavior of schizophrenic and personality disorder patients. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 27: 755–767.
Fisher, J. D., and Fisher, W. A. (1992). People Like Us [Videotape], Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.
Furnham, A. (2003). Belief in a just world: Research progress over the past decade. Pers. Individ. Differ. 34: 795–817.
Furnham, A., and Procter, E. (1989). Belief in a just world: Review and critique of the individual difference literature. Br. J. Soc. Psychol. 28: 365–384.
Hafer, C. L. (2000a). Do innocent victims threaten the belief in a just world?: Evidence from a modified stroop task. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 79: 165–173.
Hafer, C. L. (2000b). Investment in long-term goals and commitment to just means drive the need to believe in a just world. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 26: 1059–1073.
Hafer, C. L., and Bègue, L. (2005). Experimental research on just-world theory: Problems, developments, and future challenges. Psychol. Bull. 131: 128–167.
Hare, R. D. (1978). Psychopathy and electrodermal responses to nonsignal stimuli. Biol. Psychol. 6: 237–246.
Harpur, T. J., Hare, S. D., and Hakstian, A. R. (1989). Two-factor conceptualization of psychopathy: Construct validity and assessment implications. Psychol. Assess.: J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 1: 6–17.
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1979). Characterological versus behavioral self-blame: Inquiries into depression and rape. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 37: 1798–1809.
Jones, C., and Aronson, E. (1973). Attribution of fault to a rape victim as a function of respectability of the victim. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 26: 415–419.
Jost, J. T., Fitzsimons, G., and Kay, A. C. (2004). The ideological animal: A system justification view. In Greenberg, J., Koole, S. L., and Pyszczynski, T. (eds.), Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology, Guilford, New York, pp. 263–283.
Karpman, B. (1948). The myth of the psychopathic personality. Am. J. Psychiatry 104: 523–534.
Karuza, J. Jr., and Carey, T. O. (1984). Relative preference and adaptiveness of behavioral blame for observers of rape victims. J. Pers. 52: 249–260.
Lerner, M. J. (1977). The justice motive: Some hypotheses as to its origins and forms. J. Pers. 45: 1–52.
Lerner, M. J. (1980). The Belief in a Just World: A Fundamental Delusion, Plenum, New York.
Lerner, M. J. (2003). The justice motive: Where psychologists found it, how they lost it, and why they may not find it again. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 7: 388–399.
Lerner, M. J., and Goldberg, J. H. (1999). When do decent people blame victims? The differing effects of the explicit-rational and implicit-experiential cognitive systems. In Chaiken, S., and Trope, T. (eds.), Dual Process Theories in Social Psychology, Guilford, New York, pp. 627–640.
Lerner, M. J., and Miller, D. T. (1978). Just world research and the attribution process: Looking back and ahead. Psychol. Bull. 85: 1030–1051.
Lerner, M. J., Miller, D. T., and Holmes, J. G. (1976). Deserving and the emergence of forms of justice. In Berkowitz, L., and Walster, E. (eds.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 9, Academic, New York, pp. 133–162.
Lerner, M. J., and Simmons, C. H. (1966). Observer's reaction to the “innocent victim”: Compassion or rejection? J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 4: 203–210.
Levenson, M. R., Kiehl, K. A., and Fitzpatrick, C. M. (1995). Assessing psychopathic attributes in a noninstitutionalized population. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 68: 151–158.
Lorenz, A. R., and Newman, J. P. (2002). Deficient response modulation and emotion processing in low-anxious Caucasian psychopathic offenders: Results from a lexical decision task. Emotion 2: 91–104.
Luengo, M. A., Carrillo-de-la-Peña, M. T., Otero, J. M., and Romero, E. (1994). Measuring impulsivity and examining its relationship to delinquency. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 103: 192–205.
Lynam, D. R., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Wikström, P. H., Loeber, R., and Novak, S. (2000). The interaction between impulsivity and neighborhood context on offending: The effects of impulsivity are stronger in poorer neighborhoods. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 109: 563–574.
Lynam, D. R., Whiteside, S., and Jones, S. (1999). Self-reported psychopathy—A validation study. J. Pers. Assess. 73: 110–132.
Maes, J. (1998). Immanent justice and ultimate justice: Two ways of believing in justice. In Montada, L., and Lerner, M. J. (eds.), Responses to Victimizations and Belief in a Just World, Plenum, New York, pp. 9–40.
Maes, J., and Kals, E. (2002). Justice beliefs in school: Distinguishing ultimate and immanent justice. Soc. Justice Res. 15: 227–244.
Maes, J., and Schmitt, M. (1999). More on ultimate and immanent justice: Results from the research project “Justice as a problem within reunified Germany.” Soc. Justice Res. 12: 65–78.
Mantler, J., Schellenberg, E. G., and Page, J. S. (2003). Attributions for serious illness: Are controllability, responsibility, and blame different constructs? Can. J. Behav. Sci. 35: 142–152.
McHoskey, J. W., Worzel, W., and Szyarto, C. (1998). Machiavellianism and psychopathy. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 74: 192–210.
Miller, D. T. (1977). Altruism and threat to a belief in a just world. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 13: 113–124.
Patrick, C. J., Bradley, M. M., and Lang, P. J. (1993). Emotion in the criminal psychopath: Startle reflex modulation. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 102: 82–92.
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., and Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 67: 741–763.
Rushton, J. P., and Chrisjohn, R. D. (1981). Extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, and self-reported delinquency: Evidence from eight separate samples. Pers. Individ. Differ. 2: 11–20.
Shaver, K. G. (1985). The Attribution of Blame: Causality, Responsibility, and Blameworthiness, Springer-Verlag, New York.
Strathman, A., Gleicher, F., Boninger, D. S., and Edwards, C. S. (1994). The consideration of future consequences: Weighing immediate and distant outcomes of behavior. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 66: 742–752.
Sutton, S. K., Vitale, J. E., and Newman, J. P. (2002). Emotion among women with psychopathy during picture perception. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 111: 610–619.
Tomaka, J., and Blascovich, J. (1994). Effects of justice beliefs on cognitive appraisal of and subjective, physiological, and behavioral responses to potential stress. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 67: 732–740.
White, J. L., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Bartusch, D. J., Needles, D. J., and Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1994). Measuring impulsivity and examining its relationship to delinquency. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 103: 192–205.
Zimbardo, P. G. (1990). The Stanford Time Perspective Inventory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hafer, C.L., Bègue, L., Choma, B.L. et al. Belief in a Just World and Commitment to Long-Term Deserved Outcomes. Soc Just Res 18, 429–444 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-005-8569-3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-005-8569-3