World Beliefs Research Articles

The association between adolescents' beliefs in a just world and their attitudes to victims of bullying

Research which has investigated children's attitudes to bullying has found that the majority of children display anti-bullying attitudes. However, a small minority of children do appear to admire the bully and lack sympathy for victims of bullying. The just world belief theory has received a great deal of attention in recent years with evidence emerging in support of a two-dimensional model distinguishing between beliefs in a just world (BJW) for self and BJW for others. BJW-self (and not BJW-others) has been found to uniquely predict psychological well-being, whereas BJW-others (and not BJW-self) uniquely predicts harsh social attitudes and derogation of victims. The aim of the present study was to measure BJW-self and others in a sample of UK secondary schoolchildren and to see whether BJW-others can account for adolescents' negative attitudes towards victims of bullying. In total, 346 pupils aged 11-16 years of age (270 males, 76 females) from two schools took part in the study. The participants completed measures of BJW-self and others, attitudes to victims of bullying, empathy, and self-esteem on a whole class basis. It was found that BJW-others uniquely predicted adolescents' attitudes to victims but in the opposite direction to that which was predicted - high BJW were associated with stronger anti-bullying attitudes. As predicted, BJW-self (but not BJW-others) was positively and uniquely correlated with self-esteem. The findings are discussed in the context of research which has found that the direction of the relationship between BJW-others and derogation of victims appears to depend on the nature of the injustice, with people with strong BJW less tolerant of severe injustices.

Do people with mental illness deserve what they get? Links between meritocratic worldviews and implicit versus explicit stigma

Meritocratic worldviews that stress personal responsibility, such as the Protestant ethic or general beliefs in a just world, are typically associated with stigmatizing attitudes and could explain the persistence of mental illness stigma. Beliefs in a just world for oneself ("I get what I deserve"), however, are often related to personal well-being and can be a coping resource for stigmatized individuals. Despite these findings in other stigmatized groups, the link between worldviews and the stigma of psychiatric disorders is unknown. We measured just world beliefs for self and others as well as endorsement of the Protestant ethic in 85 people with schizophrenia, schizoaffective or affective disorders and 50 members of the general public. Stigmatizing attitudes toward people with mental illness (perceived responsibility, perceived dangerousness, general agreement with negative stereotypes) were assessed by self-report. Using a response-latency task, the Brief Implicit Association Test, we also examined guilt-related implicit negative stereotypes about mental illness. We found a consistent positive link between endorsing the Protestant ethic and stigmatizing self-reported attitudes in both groups. Implicit guilt-related stereotypes were positively associated with the Protestant ethic only among members of the public. Among people with mental illness, stronger just world beliefs for self were related to reduced self-stigma, but also to more implicit blame of persons with mental illness. The Protestant ethic may increase (self-)stigmatizing attitudes; just world beliefs for oneself, on the other hand, may lead to unexpected implicit self-blame in stigmatized individuals. Public anti-stigma campaigns and initiatives to reduce self-stigma among people with mental illness should take worldviews into account.

Effects of Victimization on the Belief in a Just World in Four Ex-Yugoslavian Countries

Levels of support for just world beliefs among young adults (N = 598) from four ex-Yugoslavian countries—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Slovenia—were compared, taking into account victimization experiences and the general belief in a just world. Being a victim affected an individual’s belief in a just world in the two less economically favored contexts: Victims of exclusion in Macedonia and victims of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina were less likely to believe in a just world than non-victims. These victimization variables partly explained why the mean scores of these two countries were less than those of the two others. A deleterious effect of cumulative negative events on belief in a just world was identified, in parallel with a lower endorsement of the belief when the first victimization occurred more recently.

P03-184 - Mental illness stigma in a just world: implicit and explicit findings

ObjectiveMeritocratic worldviews that stress personal responsibility, such as the Protestant ethic or general beliefs in a just world (“People get what they deserve”), are typically associated with stigmatizing attitudes and could explain the persistence of mental illness stigma. Beliefs in a just world for oneself (“I get what I deserve”), however, are often related to well-being and can be a coping resource for stigmatized individuals. Despite these findings in other stigmatized groups, the link between worldviews and mental illness stigma is unknown.MethodsWe measured just world beliefs for self and others as well as endorsement of the Protestant ethic in 85 people with affective, schizoaffective, or psychotic disorders and 50 members of the general public. Stigmatizing attitudes toward people with mental illness were assessed by self-report. Using a Brief Implicit Association Test, we also examined guilt-related implicit negative stereotypes about mental illness.ResultsWe found a consistent link between endorsing the Protestant ethic and more stigmatizing selfreported attitudes in both groups. Protestant ethic was associated with negative implicit stereotypes only among members of the public. Among people with mental illness, stronger just world beliefs for self were related to reduced self-stigma, but also to more implicit blame of persons with mental illness.ConclusionsMeritocratic worldviews are associated with mental illness stigma. Just world beliefs for self among stigmatized individuals may reduce self-stigma, but could increase implicit blame among people with mental illness. This should be taken into account in interventions meant to reduce self-stigma.

Demographic Correlates of Just World and Unjust Beliefs in an Austrian Sample

320 Viennese adult participants (47.5% female) in a population sample completed two questionnaires measuring just world beliefs that were scored separately for just and unjust world beliefs. The study aimed to investigate the role of sex and age, as well as religious and political beliefs on just and unjust world beliefs. Older males who identified with a more left-wing political orientation tended to have lower scores on just world beliefs on Rubin and Peplau's scale, while better educated people tended to score lower on the unjust world subscale on both scales, although both predictors explained less than 6% of the variance in scores.

Justifying Inequality: A Cross-Temporal Investigation of U.S. Income Disparities and Just-World Beliefs from 1973 to 2006

This cross-temporal meta-analysis examined 6,120 American college students’ scores on the Belief in a Just World Scale (BJW; Rubin and Peplau, J Soc Issues 31(3):65–90, 1975) across the last three and a half decades. Drawing on models of belief threat, we examined whether the causal relationship between perceived injustice and increases in BJW could extend from the laboratory to society by using macro-economic injustice trends to predict changes in BJW across these decades. Specifically, we hypothesized that perceptions of inequality, operationalized as rising income disparities, would result in a greater need to justify this inequality and that this would be evidenced by increased commitment to just world beliefs over time. Consistent with this prediction, BJW scores increased significantly over time and this increase was positively related to increasing income disparities in society. Income inequality remained a significant predictor of BJW scores even after controlling for additional factors of general income and political ideology. Implications of increasing just world beliefs are discussed in terms of psychological and policy outcomes.

A Motivational Model of Authoritarianism: Integrating Personal and Situational Determinants

We describe and test a collective security model of authoritarianism. This model sees Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) as directly caused by collective security motivation (CSM), which is in turn influenced jointly by personality (with its effects mediated through group identification and dangerous world beliefs) and social threat (with its effects mediated through dangerous world beliefs). Two studies tested this model using student samples—one was correlational (N = 218), while the other included an experimental manipulation of threat using future scenarios (N = 136). Structural equation analyses partially supported the model suggesting that CSM fully mediated the effects of threat and group identification on RWA, but only partially mediated the effect of personality, which also had important direct effects.

Justifying Outcomes Versus Processes: Distributive and Procedural Justice Beliefs as Predictors of Positive and Negative Affectivity

System justifying beliefs can have adaptive consequences for individuals that include enhanced coping and decreased emotional distress. The present study examined whether individual differences in two kinds of system justifying beliefs uniquely predict dispositional affect. Participants from across the United States were recruited via internet to complete dispositional measures of procedural and distributive justice beliefs, and also brief measures of positive and negative affectivity. While belief in fair outcomes (distributive just world beliefs) was generally associated with greater positive affectivity, belief in fair processes (procedural just world beliefs) was modestly associated with decreased negative affectivity. In addition, positive and negative affectivity were predicted by interactions between procedural and distributive just world beliefs, with each accentuating the general emotional benefit provided by the other. Finally, an interactive effect of procedural just world beliefs and social class was obtained for positive affectivity, with greater positive affectivity occurring for disadvantaged (lower income) individuals who had strong procedural just world beliefs. In general, these results suggest the potential for unique and interactive relationships between particular system justifying beliefs and measures of emotion, especially among members of advantaged versus disadvantaged groups.

Predicting the Timing of Coming Out in Gay and Bisexual Men From World Beliefs, Physical Attractiveness, and Childhood Gender Identity/Role1

In a questionnaire study, we examined the age of “coming out” (i.e., acknowledging one's sexual identity) in gay and bisexual men as predicted by belief in a just world (BJW), personal efficacy (PE), physical attractiveness, childhood gender identity/role, and demographics. As hypothesized, men with a higher BJW, greater physical attractiveness, greater degree of same‐sex behavior, and younger age reported an earlier age of coming out. An interaction between BJW and childhood gender identity/role showed, as expected, that the relation with BJW only occurred among men with greater childhood femininity. Unexpectedly, PE was unrelated to age of coming out. Results add to previous studies on the coming‐out process and to work suggesting a buffering effect of BJW in other contexts.

Internalized weight stigma and its ideological correlates among weight loss treatment seeking adults

There are significant economic and psychological costs associated with the negative weight-based social stigma that exists in American society. This pervasive anti-fat bias has been strongly internalized among the overweight/obese. While the etiology of weight stigma is complex, research suggests that it is often greater among individuals who embrace certain etiological views of obesity or ideological views of the world. This investigation examined 1) the level of internalized weight stigma among overweight/obese treatment seeking adults, and 2) the association between internalized weight stigma and perceived weight controllability and ideological beliefs about the world ('just world beliefs', Protestant work ethic). Forty-six overweight or obese adults (BMI >or=27 kg/m2) participating in an 18- week behavioral weight loss program completed implicit (Implicit Associations Test) and explicit (Obese Person's Trait Survey) measures of weight stigma. Participants also completed two measures of ideological beliefs about the world ("Just World Beliefs", Protestant Ethic Scale) and one measure of beliefs about weight controllability (Beliefs about Obese Persons). Significant implicit and explicit weight bias was observed. Greater weight stigma was consistently associated with greater endorsement of just world beliefs, Protestant ethic beliefs and beliefs about weight controllability. Results suggest that the overweight/obese treatment seeking adults have internalized the negative weight-based social stigma that exists in American society. Internalized weight stigma may be greater among those holding specific etiological and ideological beliefs about weight and the world.

Does the DOG Scale Measure Dogmatism? Another Look at Construct Validity

The author addressed the construct validity of B. Altemeyer's (1996) Dogmatism (DOG) scale. Confirmatory factor analyses of the scale provided evidence of uni-dimensionality, despite apparent method effects related to item wording. DOG scale scores correlated strongly and positively with the belief that knowledge is certain, providing convergent validity evidence for the measure. Scores on the DOG scale appeared empirically distinguishable from measures of need for cognition, need for structure, and need to evaluate. Criterion-related validity evidence came in the form of theoretically predictable relationships between the DOG scale and measures of religious fundamentalism, quest orientation, national identification, conservative ideology, dangerous world beliefs, and reactions to individuals and groups who hold worldview-incongruent beliefs and values.

Religion and Helping: Impact of Target Thinking Styles and Just-World Beliefs

Previous research on religion and helping has left some questions unanswered. In the present study, participants expressed willingness to help groups of people in need (homeless people and illegal immigrants), and this after having been religiously versus non-religiously stimulated. The activation of religious context increased the willingness to help, but only the homeless. Orthodox religious people tended to consider the targets responsible for their problem, an association partially mediated by the belief in a just world for other. Symbolic thinking was associated with willingness for helping, an association partially mediated by the belief in ultimate justice. Results suggest a limited (target) and conditional (thinking style, just world beliefs) prosociality as a consequence of religion.

Belief in a Just World, Social Influence and Illness Attributions

Characteristics of individuals and illnesses can both influence receptivity to preventative health messages. We examined whether receptivity to health messages depends on interactions between illness characteristics and dispositional concern for justice. Participants considered the preventability of six illnesses after exposure to a message that manipulated personal responsibility for illness. Paradoxically, participants with strong just world beliefs reported greater preventability for less preventable illnesses, such as brain cancer, when exposed to an unpreventable health message. In parallel, participants with low justice beliefs reported less preventability for lung cancer when exposed to a preventable message. This just world boomerang effect suggests that individual dispositions and illness characteristics can interact in ways that can produce either acquiescence or opposition to persuasive health messages.

Attitudinal and Behavioral Pathways of Deviance in Online Gaming

Using data gathered from a qualitative study of a popular online game, this analysis considers the relationship between online deviance and real deviance, as well as the relationship between social control in the online setting and its subsequent impact on real world beliefs and behaviors. Findings suggest that three pathways of connectivity prevail in the current setting. Each pathway has in common the role of a transition block that promotes the idea of the online community representing “just a game.” The nature of varied interpretations of this concept and their implications are discussed. Implications drawn from findings include proposed further research of online and offline behavioral connectivity, as well as an integration of social control research into existing studies of gaming influence on deviant and criminal behaviors. The importance of the online subculture as a unit deserving of criminological study is discussed.

Just world beliefs moderate the relationship of pain intensity and disability with psychological distress in chronic pain support group members

The impact of pain beliefs on coping and adjustment is well established. However, less is known about how beliefs unrelated to pain might impact upon this experience. In particular, just world beliefs could impact upon and be influenced by chronic pain, given that pain is not experienced in a vacuum but instead is experienced in a social context where justice issues are potentially salient. The focus of this study was the ability of personal and general just world beliefs to moderate the relationships psychological distress held with pain intensity and disability in chronic pain. The sample ( N = 95) was recruited from members of arthritis and fibromyalgia support groups to investigate these social beliefs in a controlled community pain context. A cross-sectional, questionnaire design was adopted. The personal just world belief was endorsed significantly more than the general just world belief, and endorsement of the personal just world belief was negatively correlated with pain intensity, disability and psychological distress, while the general just world belief was unrelated to these variables. When interaction terms relating to personal and general just world beliefs were entered simultaneously into regression analyses, the personal just world belief did not predict psychological distress. However, pain intensity positively predicted psychological distress at low but not high levels of the general just world belief, while disability predicted psychological distress at low and high levels of this belief. This suggests that a strong general just world belief has implications for psychological well-being in chronic pain, and as such this belief may occupy a potential coping function in this context.

Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation

The purpose of this study was to test an integrative model in which worldview beliefs were treated as antecedents of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), and two sets of attitudes related to the War on Terror: endorsement of restrictions on human rights/civil liberties and support for the US military invasion of Iraq in 2003. Dangerous and competitive world beliefs significantly predicted RWA and SDO, respectively, during structural equation modeling. Whereas both RWA and SDO predicted endorsement of human rights/civil liberties attitudes, only RWA predicted support for military aggression against Iraq. Tests of indirect effects suggested that RWA mediated the effects of dangerous world beliefs on attitudes toward human rights/civil liberties and support for military aggression, whereas SDO mediated the effects of competitive world beliefs on attitudes toward human rights/civil liberties only.

Atheism: online information and resources

The final part of the series, which explores the websites that explain the various world belief systems, examines websites relating to atheism. Atheism may be largely defined as the denial or disbelief in a deity and the rejection of a mystical God as an influence on Man. As such, it may seem out of place in a series that has mainly addressed faith and religious belief; nevertheless, as we enter an era of more secular sensibility and receptivity to the natural and not supernatural world, it is reasonable to consider resources for this aspect of life.

Islamic beliefs: online information and resources

‘Islam’ means ‘submission to the will of God’ and adherents to this world belief now number well over 1 billion followers, with Muslims constituting the majority population primarily in over 50 Eastern countries. Nevertheless, significantly-sized Muslim communities live in most Western countries, contributing to the cultural, spiritual, religious and political activity of those areas, and so an understanding of at least the basic tenets of this belief system may positively influence care and seems especially relevant when fear, distrust and other prejudice is often seemingly easily applied to this faith.

Cultivating the Regulatory Focus of Followers to Amplify Their Sensitivity to Transformational Leadership

According to regulatory focus theory, one facet of transformational leadership might inspire only followers who direct their attention to their aspirations, called a promotion focus . Furthermore, followers focus their attention on aspirations only when they experience a sense of security. In this study, 160 employees completed a survey evaluating the leadership style of their supervisors and their own regulatory focus, self-esteem, attachment style, belief in a just world, and work engagement. Visionary leadership was positively associated with engagement in followers, especially when these individuals adopted a promotion focus. This promotion focus was related to factors that confer a sense of security—such as attachment style and just world beliefs—which in turn were associated with the leadership style of their supervisors. Findings imply leaders should first foster a sense of security in followers, which evokes a promotion focus and augments the receptivity of employees to a rousing vision of the future.

Just world beliefs, perceived stress, and health behavior: The impact of a procedurally just world*

Recent research suggests that a just world view may promote good health while low belief in a just world may deleteriously affect well-being. However, this research is limited in that specific components of justice beliefs that are important to health are not well articulated. Additionally, many potential pathways linking perceived fairness to physical health remain largely unexplored. In the present study, we examined how individual differences in both distributive (outcomes and allocations) and procedural (rules and processes) just world beliefs are associated with stress and health behavior. Participants were recruited from two universities (N = 426) to complete individual differences measures of procedural and distributive just world beliefs, and also measures of perceived stress, health behavior, and physical symptoms. Results suggested that procedural, but not distributive just world views were important to well-being. In particular, belief in a procedurally just world was associated directly with lower perceived stress, and also indirectly with adaptive health behaviors and fewer physical health complaints. In general, these results suggest that beliefs about a procedurally just world may be particularly important to well-being, while also suggesting specific directions and mechanisms for future attempts at developing justice-oriented health interventions. *Portions of this research were conducted while the first author was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine (Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System & University of Michigan), and also a visiting instructor at Albion College (Albion, MI).