Abstract
Past research has found that when victims are ingroup members, observers’ social identification interacts with general belief in a just world (GBJW) to predict judgments about those victims. In this correlational study (N=284 women, ages from 18 to 80) we aimed to test whether and how women’s explicit endorsement of BJW, both personal belief in a just world (PBJW) and GBJW, interacts with their identification as women to predict wife abuse legitimization.We predicted and found that the interaction between PBJW and social identification predicted legitimization of wife abuse. Specifically, for highly identified women, PBJW was positively associated with wife abuse legitimization, for less identified women, PBJW was not associated with wife abuse legitimization. This interaction was significant above and beyond other variables associated with this phenomenon: hostile and benevolent sexism, empathy (cognitive and emotional), and social desirability. On the contrary, the interaction between GBJW and social identification was a nonsignificant predictor of legitimization of wife abuse. These results contribute to reconceptualize the role of PBJW and GBJW on judgments about victims and to highlight the importance of considering the victimization situations in the social context and the social groups in which they actually occur.
Highlights
Belief in a just world, social identification and legitimation of victimization Many types of innocent victims face negative reactions from other people as if their suffering is fair and legitimate (e.g., Lerner & Simmons, 1966)
For highly identified women, personal belief in a just world (PBJW) was positively associated with wife abuse legitimization, for less identified women, PBJW was not associated with wife abuse legitimization
In this research we extend on previous work by making a distinction between the general belief in a just world (GBJW; Dalbert, Montada, & Schmitt, 1987) and the belief in a personal just world (PBJW; Dalbert, 1999) when examining the interaction of just world beliefs with social identification
Summary
Belief in a just world, social identification and legitimation of victimization Many types of innocent victims face negative reactions from other people as if their suffering is fair and legitimate (e.g., Lerner & Simmons, 1966). According to just world theory, this assimilation of injustices happening to either the self (Dalbert, 2001) or to other people (Lerner, 1980) derives from the threat that innocent victimization poses to individuals' BJW. Sharing a common identity with the victim is a potential cause of threat to one’s BJW because ingroup members are more relevant than outgroup members in indicating what may happen to the self (Aguiar, Vala, Correia, & Pereira, 2008; Lerner & Miller, 1978; Novak & Lerner, 1968) This finding is in line with social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). For those who were less identified, we expected that BJW would not be associated with wife abuse legitimization
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