A cognitive bias that shapes our beliefs about fairness, justice, and personal responsibility
A just-world belief, also known as just-world theory, is a psychological concept proposing that some people embrace a strong belief in the inherent fairness of the world.
A just world is one in which actions and conditions have predictable, appropriate consequences. A world where people get what they deserve and deserve what they get. These people are said to believe that the social system that affects everyone is predominately fair, legitimate, and justifiable.
This theory was first introduced by Melvin Lerner in the 1960s. Lerner’s work made the just-world hypothesis a focus of research in the field of social psychology. He suggested that the belief in a just world (BJW) can lead to negative attitudes towards innocent victims, as proponents attempt to rationalize their suffering to maintain their faith in a fair and orderly world.
This desire for moral balance can influence how these people perceive political leaders, personal beliefs, and the events they encounter in their daily lives.
These people tend to vote for candidates who are “tough on crime” and “law and order”. They oppose abortion (pro-life) but support capital punishment. They support cutting social programs and are against universal healthcare.
They believe in smaller or limited government and support the cherished, motivating, and FALSE ideologies of individualism, meritocracy, and traditionalism. One should improve one’s situation through hard work and self-determination, rather than getting government assistance.
They believe that America is a post-racial society, and that race is irrelevant in the pursuit of one’s success in America. Their proponents believe that failure is not a consequence of race or systematic racism but from lack of INDIVIDUAL character and effort. Lastly, they staunchly support conservative and Christian values. The result is an ostensibly coherent system of thought.
When faced with evidence of injustice or suffering, these people will often adopt a “blame and defame the victim” mentality and tend to be unsympathetic to the needs of the less fortunate and minorities. Their behavior is an example of cognitive-dissonance reduction, the process by which people reconcile new information that contradicts their firmly held priors.
This allows the proponents of this belief to justify almost any injustice or suffering experienced by the victims as deserving. This prosocial behavior acts as a convenient coping mechanism to restore the psychological concept of the inherent fairness of a just-world and the goodness of themselves.
Because of the continuously reinforced belief that America is the land of equal opportunity, proponents assume circumstances involving individuals facing hardships were caused through some fault of the individuals facing the hardship. They must have poor character, engaged in dishonest behavior, made poor decisions, are lazy or have a poor work ethic, to justify their plight or situation.
People with this bias make the argument, there are very few innocent or ideal victims. Most individuals, they believe, “deserve” or “contributed” to their misfortune.
Because we are all predisposed to believe stereotypes, especially individuals that possess a strong belief in the inherent fairness of the world, preexisting negative racial stereotypes can provide convenient, although fallacious explanations. This leads to an even greater revulsion of the victims. Theories of inferiority emerge as justification and linked to certain racial minorities. This cognitive-dissonance reduction requires vilifying the victim to uphold one’s prejudices. These people are lesser, in intellect, in biology, in culture. These people are not “worthy” victims, but “unworthy” victims.
This way of thinking can influence attention and the absorption of new knowledge. These people are more likely to notice information that fits their beliefs, while re-interpreting contradictions to their beliefs as exceptions or distorting them to fit. These people tend to be fixed in their beliefs and remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information.
Research has shown that even when these individuals are presented with copious amounts of research and studies about how their actions, beliefs and decisions are negatively affecting the less fortunate and minorities, about 40 percent of them will deliberately choose not to know and refuse to acknowledge the research. Some will even endorse information previously verified to be false, as an attempt to remain unchanged in their beliefs.
Prejudice is preconceived, judgment, opinion, or biased thinking. Prejudice is not based on personal experience; it is a prejudgment originating outside actual experience.
People with preconceived racial and ethnic prejudice tend to apply their negative attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken generalizations to whole categories of people, and to individual members of those categories.
Prejudice is one example of a belief that prevents people from seeing the world as it is and inhibits them from taking in new information.
Researchers believe this willful ignorance is a coping mechanism designed to preserve their self-image of being a good person. Many people do not want to know the truth for fear of having their hypocritical behavior exposed.
In some cases, people would rather deny the reality of the injustice rather than experience shame. The appearance of being a good person and avoiding the psychological discomforts of guilt, shame or being wrong, is more important than correcting the real impact of the injustices they are inflicting on others, especially minorities.
Others have a deep belief in white racial superiority and will conveniently use willful ignorance to perpetuate a system that disproportionately awards advantages to their racial group. The negative consequences of a system of racial hierarchy can have generational impacts on the less fortunate and minorities.
Research has revealed a strong relationship between endorsement of just world beliefs and racism.
Common Just World Beliefs
1. We Live in a Post-Racial, Color-Blind Society
Some proponents of a just-world contend that slavery and systematic racism happened a long time ago. Any system of racism is a thing of the past. Proponents of a just-world belief often assert that policies that differentiate by racial classification tend to create, perpetuate or exacerbate racial divisiveness.
Some proponents of a just-world belief agree with the Supreme Court of the United States decision to overturn affirmative action. In June 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States decided a landmark case, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, holding race-conscious college admissions processes to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
Some proponents of a just-world belief agree with budget cuts to Medicaid. Medicaid is a government program that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by state governments, which also have wide latitude in determining eligibility and benefits, but the federal government sets baseline standards for state Medicaid programs and provides a significant portion of their funding.
Some proponents of a just-world belief agree with repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA is formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare. Before and after enactment the ACA faced strong political opposition, calls for repeal and legal challenges. The U.S. is the only developed country without a system of universal healthcare, and a significant proportion of its population lacks health insurance. The U.S. also has the highest prescription drug prices in the world, coupled with ever-rising non-transparent healthcare costs for surgeries and other medical services because hospitals and insurers keep them secret.
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