The Deleterious Effect of Victimization on Just World Beliefs

Being a victim of a violent crime is a traumatic experience. Sexual victimization, in particular, may be powerful enough to change presumably stable worldviews like just world beliefs. Across two large samples, we examined the influence of sexual victimization on just world beliefs. Results of Study 1 ( N = 727) indicated that victims of sexual aggression had significantly lower levels of just world beliefs compared to nonvictims. Other researchers have claimed that sexual aggression is a uniquely intense traumatic event. Therefore, in a second study, we examined (a) whether just world belief endorsement was associated with the frequency of victimization, and (b) whether sexual aggression was unique in its effect on just world belief endorsement compared to other crimes such as physical assault. Results of Study 2 ( N = 2,011) indicated that multiple incidents of victimization did not meaningfully impact just world beliefs compared to a single instance and just world belief endorsement was not significantly different across victims of sexual aggression, robbery, physical assault, or arson. An exploratory analysis, however, indicated there was a significant difference in victims’ behavior such that victims of sexual aggression were the least likely to have reported the crime. We end with a discussion of how the present research can advance our understanding of just world belief ideology and discuss the practical implications for professionals working with and studying victims of violent crimes.

The Influence of Social Anxiety on Mobile Phone Addiction: The Buff-er Effect of Belief in a Fair World

<p>Using the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale, Social Anxiety Scale and Justice World Belief Scale, this paper investigated 647 college students in a university in Hubei Province, and investigated the influence of social anxiety of college students on mobile phone addiction and the moderating effect of justice world belief in it. The results show that: (1) there is a significant positive correlation between social anxiety and cell phone addiction among college students; (2) just world belief plays a regulating role in the relationship between social anxiety and cell phone addiction. with the improvement of just world belief, the relationship between social anxiety and cell phone addiction gradually weakens and eventually disappears.</p>

The Content and Correlates of Belief in Karma Across Cultures

Karmic beliefs, centered on the expectation of ethical causation within and across lifetimes, appear in major world religions as well as spiritual movements around the world, yet they remain an underexplored topic in psychology. In three studies, we assessed the psychological predictors of Karmic beliefs among participants from culturally and religiously diverse backgrounds, including ethnically and religiously diverse students in Canada, and broad national samples of adults from Canada, India, and the United States (total N = 8,996). Belief in Karma is associated with, but not reducible to, theoretically related constructs including belief in a just world, belief in a moralizing God, religious participation, and cultural context. Belief in Karma also uniquely predicts causal attributions for misfortune. Together, these results show the value of measuring explicit belief in Karma in cross-cultural studies of justice, religion, and social cognition.

Attitudes toward victim and victimization in the light of the just world theory

The present paper discusses current empirical status of the Just world theory introduced several decades ago by Melvin Lerner, the content and functions of a just world belief as its central construct, and particularly, the relation between a just world belief and victim blaming and victim derogation phenomena. In the light of existing research evidence, a just world belief and a need to re-establish a ?justice? when this belief is threatened, is considered to be an adaptive mechanism that protect a belief that a world is secure and the future is predictable, as well as a confidence in the purposefulness of selfdiscipline, long-term personal investments and social rules respecting. As proposed By the just world theory, when a person faces injustice, i.e. others? (innocent victims?) suffering, his/her belief in a just world is threatened. Possible reactions to that threat comprise various rational victim helping activities, but also specific cognitive defensive strategies, including cognitive distortion, rationalization and reinterpretation of an event in order to minimize injustice or deny injustice happened at all. In the course of reinterpretation of injustice, victims are often blamed for their former actions, or derogated for their character, in order to indicate them responsible for their own fate and suffering. The findings of research studies suggest that the likelihood of employing cognitive defensive strategies rises if formal responses to crime and victimization lack or fail. This further suggests that an efficient and effective formal social response in terms of both sanctioning of offenders and reparation of victims should be considered highly important in reducing the risk of stigmatization and rejection of victims. Finally, the paper discusses the role of victim?s just world beliefs in post-trauma adaptation and coping processes. In virtue of findings from the existing research literature it may be concluded that victim?s belief in a just world is not necessarily obstructive for the adaptation and coping process. Moreover, in the research literature prevail findings telling in support of an assertion that strong just world belief serves significantly as a self-protective function.