Malvin J. Lerner, father of Just World Theory, stated that people: “have a need to believe that they live in a world where everyone, generally, gets what they deserve.” (1982).
The belief in a just world manifests itself, in the form of cognitive bias, in the idea that good things will tend to happen to good people and, conversely, bad things will tend to happen to bad people. This way of seeing the world tends to be maintained by a large part of the population, even though this is not usually true.
On many occasions, good and respectful people do not have the luck in life that they deserve In many others, those who live by taking advantage of others succeed and their lives go from strength to strength. Faced with these facts, which when observed coldly turn out to be unfair, human beings have developed a bias that allows them to assimilate them in a positive way.
Therefore, thinking of the world as a fair place in which everyone has what they deserve, as Furnham (2003) states, will serve as a protective factor against the stress caused by the unpleasant events we witness. Lerner argues that this belief allows us to see our environment as a stable and orderly place and that, without it, the motivational process that allows us to set long-term goals would be difficult since it makes us think that we really control our own destiny.
This belief is really difficult to eliminate due to how harsh the perception of reality would be without its protective effect Therefore, our cognition uses a certain method to maintain and reinforce this idea.
Victim blaming
The most frequent process is the blaming of the victim in an unfair situation For example, it is not uncommon to hear from some people that if someone is poor it is because they have not tried hard enough in their life. There is also no shortage of those who, when faced with a rape, argue that the woman should have been accompanied or should wear clothing that provokes the rapists less.
These dangerous arguments protect those who have this biased belief, since, by thinking that they are not doing anything that could have negative consequences, the perception of vulnerability and the risk of suffering from certain situations will be reduced.
After-the-fact effect
The after-effect would also reinforce these thoughts This effect is a cognitive illusion that makes us think, upon knowing the results of an event, that we would have known how to solve it much better than the victim.
A simple example of this is that of the “bar experts” who, after having watched Sunday’s football game, know (better than the coach himself) the tactics that would have led their team to victory.
Confirmatory bias
Another bias that would maintain these prejudices is confirmatory. This refers to the tendency of human beings to look for arguments that support their theories ignoring those that contradict them.
The control zone
Belief in a just world also helps protect one’s self-esteem and is based on the bias of self-interest. When attributing the reasons for success, an individual will think that these are due to factors that are within her zone of control, such as the effort he has made or her own abilities. Conversely, when failure occurs it is attributed to environmental characteristics such as bad luck. These perceptions, as we have seen, are different when we observe the behavior of other people.
By seeing the situation from the outside, the observer pays more attention to the personality characteristics and actions of the person who suffers (Aronson, 2012). This way The characteristics of the environment that affected that person are ignored, due to lack of knowledge For example, in the case of a homeless person, a reduced focus would ignore that that person was able to get there due to a sequence of unpredictable events and not because of their own laziness. The economic crisis, an event that no ordinary person could predict, could have left this person without a job. This could have led to an accumulation of debt, family tensions, mental illnesses such as a depressive disorder, etc.
No one likes to live in an environment of uncertainty and think that, by chance, this could happen to them. Therefore, there are people who resort to these biases in their thinking patterns. To Marvin Lerner, The belief that everyone has what they deserve would be a false illusion, that is, self-deception It would be a false belief motivated by a desire for security and control (Furnham, 2003).
The main personality trait that would define these ideas is the locus of control, specifically the internal one. People with this locus of control perceive that the consequences of their behaviors occur contingently on them, that is, they assume responsibility for their actions. In contrast, those with an external locus of control tend to attribute what happens in their environment to factors such as luck or chance.
Other personality factors that modulate and moderate the belief in a just world are altruism and empathy. The similarity or not between the subject and the victim also influences. This can lead to discriminatory behavior such as sexism or racism. Other studies have associated these beliefs with conservative and authoritarian ideologies (Furnham, 2003).
How does this belief affect society?
The belief in a just world would not be inherent to the human being, as language can be, but rather it would be acquired as part of the culture in which the individual develops. This can be reflected in an element of society such as religion.
In traditional Catholic belief, as well as others, the existence of God is maintained, who would be in charge of rewarding good patterns while he would punish those who break his law. These punishments and rewards would be carried out both in life and after death, so they motivate the individual who follows this doctrine to maintain his stable beliefs. Faith in religion and an omnipresent force could serve as a psychological coping mechanism for stress.
The influence of the “just world” on shared values
The belief in a just world, for one reason or another, does not only have effects on an individual’s way of seeing life, their self-esteem and their prejudices, but can also affect the behaviors of society at a collective level. A political ideology that is sustained on the basis that each individual has what he deserves will give rise to practices that support these ideas.
Referring to the French expression laissez faireFor a person with these beliefs, the State should not be in charge of distributing society’s resources and correcting the inequalities of opportunities caused by the environment, but rather the person in charge of this should be the individual himself with his efforts. Beliefs about the relationship between effort and deserved reward would affect both tax policies, the redistribution of wealth, and the way employees are remunerated by their company (Frank et al., 2015).
The idea of a just world also affects other aspects such as prison policy If we only observe the actions and consequences of someone who has committed a crime, the practice to follow would be to deprive them of life in society for the established time. In contrast, taking into account that there may be environmental circumstances such as poverty, low educational level, breakdown in the family, etc. that predispose them to the commission of a crime, policies could be aimed at prevention, intervention and readaptation to society of a large part of the convicted.
These ideas vary between countries and are easily maintained over time, making it difficult to modify them, both in one direction and the other. Therefore, a holistic view of a person’s situation could help change attitudes towards it and facilitate understanding.
