Responses to Victimizations and Belief in a Just World

CRITICAL ISSUES IN SOCIAL JUSTICE Published in association with the International Center for Social Justice Research, Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.

Series Editors: MELVIN J. LERNER and RIEL VERMONT

University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Recent volumes in this series:

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Edited by Melvin J. Lerner and Gerold Mikula

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Donna K. Nagata

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NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF JUSTICE, LAW, AND SOCIAL CONTROL

Prepared by the School of Justice Studies Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

RESPONSES TO VICTIMIZATIONS AND BELIEF IN A JUST WORLD Edited by Leo Montada and Melvin J. Lerner

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN HUMAN RELATIONS Volume 1: Societal and Psychological Origins ofJustice

Edited by Riel Vermunt and Herman Steensma Volume 2: Societal and Psychological Consequences of Justice and Injustice

Edited by Herman Steensma and Riel Vermunt

A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher.

Responses to Victimizations and Belief in a Just World

Edited by

LEOMONTADA University of Trier

Trier, Germany

and

MELVIN J. LERNER University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

Library of Congress Catalogtng-1n-Pub11cat1on Data

Responses to victimizations and belief in a jUSt world 1 edited by Leo Montada and Melvin J. Lerner.

p. em. -- <Critical issues in social jUStice> Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4419-3306-5 ISBN 978-1-4757-6418-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-6418-5 1. Social jUStice--Psychological

3. Victims of crimes--Psychology. aspects. 2. Be 1 i ef and doubt. I. Montada, Leo. II. Lerner,

Melvin J., 1929- III. Series. HM216.R47 1998 303.3'72--dc21

ISBN 978-1-4419-3306-5

© 1998 Springer SciencetBusiness Media New York Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1998

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Contributors

VICTOR BISSONNETTE, Southeastern Louisiana University, Box 401, Hammond, Louisiana, 70402

THOMAS BURROUGHS, Department of Psychology, Washington Univer­sity, 1 Brookings Drive, Box 1125, St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899

ALISON L. CHASTEEN, Department of Psychology, Washington Univer­sity, 1 Brookings Drive, Box 1125, St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899

CLAUDIA DALBERT, Department of Psychology, University of Kais­erslautern, D-67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany

ADRIAN FURNHAM, Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London, WC1, Great Britain

CAROLYN L. HAFER, Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1

ALAN J. LAMBERT, Department of Psychology, Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive, Box 1125, St. Louis, Missouri 63130-4899

MELVIN J. LERNER, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada

ISAAC M. LIPKUS, Duke University Medical Center, Box 2949, Durham, North Carolina 27710

Jl}RGEN MAES, Department of Psychology, University of Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany

v

vi CONTRIBUTORS

CHANGIZ MOHIYEDDINI, Psychologisches Institut, Universitat Mainz (FB 12), Staudingerweg 9, D-55099 Mainz, Germany

LEO MONTADA, Department of Psychology, Universitat Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany

JAMES M. OLSON, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5L2

BARBARA REICHLE, Department of Psychology, Universitat Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany

MANFRED J. SCHMITT, Department of Psychology, Universitat Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany

ANGELA SCHNEIDER, Department of Psychology, Unive"rsitat Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany

Preface

The preparation of this volume began with a conference held at Trier University, approximately thirty years after the publication of the first Belief in a Just World (BJW) manuscript. The location of the conference was especially appropriate given the continued interest that the Trier faculty and students had for BJW research and theory. As several chapters in this volume document, their research together with the other contributors to this volume have added to the current sophistication and status of the BJW construct. In the 1960s and 1970s Melvin Lerner, together with his students and colleagues, developed his justice motive theory. The theory of Belief in a Just World (BJW) was part of that effort. BJW theory, meanwhile in its thirties, has become very influential in social and behavioral sciences. As with every widely applied concept and theory there is a natural develop­mental history that involves transformations, differentiation of facets, and efforts to identify further theoretical relationships. And, of course, that growth process will not end unless the theory ceases to develop. In this volume this growth is reconstructed along Furnham's stage model for the development of scientific concepts.

The main part of the book is devoted to current trends in theory and research. One such trend is the effort to differentiate various facets of BJW, for instance, the distinction between belief in a just world and belief in an unjust world, the distinction between belief in immanent justice and belief in ultimate justice, the hope for justice, and the belief in one's ability, described as self-efficacy, to eliminate or reduce injustices. As revealed in several chapters, the operationalizations of these various facets have led to very fruitful research, and provided the bases for innovative theoretical contributions.

From its inception the BJW theory was intended to explain observers' coping with injustices suffered by other people. In a few chapters, new

vii

viii PREFACE

evidence is provided revealing that BJW motivates people to cope with unjust victimizations. When restoration of injustice is costly, people tend to deny injustice by blaming the victims or by minimizing their hardships and disadvantages. In this manner, BJW-based motivation merges with people's self-interest. It has been demonstrated, for the first time, that using strategies to deny injustices enables observers to maintain their BJW. In a sense BJW functions as a resource helping observers to maintain confidence in their world and life in general.

A rather new line of research describes the functions of BJW in victims' coping with their own hardships and problems. Several contributors report evidence that BJW helps to protect people against a stressful negative view of their situation, especially their fears of being unjustly victimized. In this manner, BJW seems to function as a resource for victims, too.

The majority of investigations during the 1980s and the 1990s are questionnaire or vignette studies where BJW and its various facets are considered to vary individually in strength. The interaction of this dispo­sitional motivational variable with situational information about injustices is an important empirical as well as theoretical issue. Methodological issues with the interaction of personality and situational variables and the corresponding problems of validation of personality measures are exten­sively discussed in this volume.

The use of assessment scales also raises the question at which level of psychological functioning BJW exerts its impact-a rational cognitivis­tic or an intuitive emotional one. There are good reasons to believe that BJW as a fundamental belief gains its strongest impact at the intuitive emotional level of functioning. The more rational reflection is induced, the less the impact of BJW on the person's reaction. As a consequence, it is important to be aware of the level of functioning which is induced by the design and instrumentation of research: The more the instrumentation and method used induce people to engage in rational reflection, the greater the probability that they will reveal normatively appropriate "rational" reac­tions to injustices. However, irrational reactions such as blaming victims are most likely to appear when their responses are less censored and more directly shaped by their emotion-based intuitions.

Leo Montada and Melvin J. Lerner

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1. An Overview: Advances in Belief in a Just World Theory and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Melvin f. Lerner and Leo Montada

ADVANCES IN RESEARCH ON OBSERVERS' REACTIONS TO VICTIMS

Chapter 2. Immanent Justice and Ultimate Justice: Two Ways of Believing in Justice ..................................... .

Jiirgen Maes

1. Theoretical Background .................................... . 1.1. Belief in a Just World: Experimental and Survey Studies .... . 1.2. A Suggested Differentiation between Two Variants of Belief

in a Just World ......................................... . 2. Methods .................................................. .

2.1. Construction of a Questionnaire ......................... . 2.2. Sample ................................................ .

3. Results .................................................... . 3.1. Dimensional Analyses .................................. . 3.2. Immanent and Ultimate Justice: Validation and

Differentiation of Two Scales ............................ . 4.Summary ................................................. .

ix

9

9 9

12 13 13 14 14 14

15 38

X CONTENTS

Chapter 3. BJW and Self-Efficacy in Coping with Observed Victimization: Results from a Study about Unemployment ......................................... 41

Changiz Mohiyeddini and Leo Montada

1. Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2. Methods ................................................... 44

2.1. Subjects and Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.2. Justice Related Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.3. Factor and Reliability Analysis of the Scales to Measure BJW,

SEJW, and HJW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2.4. Prosocial and "Antisocial" Responses to Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 2.5. Factor and Reliability Analysis of the Measures for BVSI,

WFI, and WPO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3. Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

3.1. Correlations between BJW, HJW, and SEJW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3.2. Intercorrelations between GBJW, HJW, and SEJW and BVSI,

WFI, WPO, and SYMP .................. ,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3.3. Two-Way Interactions of GBJW and SEJW in Predicting

Sympathy (SYMP), BVSI, and Willingness to Help the

Victims (WFI, WPO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 3.4. Estimation of Unique Effects of GBJW, SEJW, and HJW . . . . . . . 49 3.5. Membership in a Social or Political Organization (MSPO) . . . . 51

4. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 4. How Do Observers of Victimization Preserve Their Belief in a Just World Cognitively or Actionally? Findings from a Longitudinal Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Barbara Reichle, Angela Schneider, and Leo Montada

1. Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 2. Reactions to the Disadvantaged: Compensation versus

Cognitive Restoration to Maintain the Belief in a Just World . . . . . . 57

3. The Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3.1. Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3.2. Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3.3. Just World Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3.4. Existential Guilt Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 3.5. Willingness to Act Prosocially Inventory................ . . . . 59

4. Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 5. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

CONTENTS xi

INNOVATIVE EXTENSIONS OF BJW AND SELF-EXPERIENCED INJUSTICES

Chapter 5. Individual Differences in the Belief in a Just World and Responses to Personal Misfortune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Carolyn L. Hafer and James M. Olson

1. Beliefs in a Just World and Responses to Misfortune . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 2. Summary of Guiding Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

2.1. Study 1: Beliefs in a Just World and Responses to a Laboratory-Induced Deprivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

2.2. Study 2: Beliefs in a Just World and Women's Responses to Their Job Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

2.3. Study 3: Beliefs in a Just World and Student's Responses to Grades................................................. 76

3. Conclusions and Suggestions for Future Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 3.1. Do Strong Believers in a Just World Perceive Their Own

Negative Outcomes as Less Unfair Than Weak Believers? . . . . 81 3.2. Do Strong Believers in a Just World Experience Less

Discontent (i.e., Emotions Related to a Sense of Injustice Such as Anger and Resentment) When Confronted with Personal Misfortune Than Weak Believers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

3.3. Are Beliefs in a Just World Predictive of Other Emotional Responses to Personal Misfortune? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

3.4. Are Individual Differences in the Belief in a Just World Associated with Particular Behavioural Reactions to One's Own Negative Outcomes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 6. Belief in a Just World, Well-Being, and Coping with an Unjust Fate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Claudia Dalbert

1. Just World Belief and Well-Being: The Direct Relationship . . . . . . . 89 2. Just World Belief and Well-Being: The Indirect Relationship . . . . . 94

2.1. Causal Self-Attributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 2.2. Why Me? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

3. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Chapter 7. Belief in a Just World and Right-Wing Authoritarianism as Moderators of Perceived Risk ......... 107

Alan J. Lambert, Thomas Burroughs, and Alison L. Chasteen

1. Belief in a Just World and Perceptions of Risk .................. 109 2. Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Perceptions of Risk . . . . . . . . . . 111

xii CONTENTS

3. Just World Beliefs and Right-Wing Authoritarianism Compared .. 112 4. Two Empirical Investigations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

4.1. A Working Theoretical Framework ......................... 116 4.2. An Additional Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

5. Looking Ahead: Theoretical Implications and Issues to be Addressed in Future Work ................................... 120 5.1. Single versus Dual Influence Models of Perceived Risk ....... 121 5.2. Aren't There Other Personality Variables (Aside from BJW

and RWA) that Could Moderate Risk? ...................... 122 5.3. Are There Any Conditions under Which BJW Moderates

Perceived Risk Independent of Other Personality Variables? .. 122 6. Concluding Comments ...................................... 123

Chapter 8. The Belief in a Just World and Willingness to Accommodate among Married and Dating Couples ......... 127

Isaac M. Lipkus and Victor Bissonnette

1. The Belief in a Just World and Willingness to Accommodate ...... 128 2. Relationship between the Belief in a Just World and

Accommodation among Married Couples ...................... 131 3. Relationship between the Belief in a Just World and

Accommodation among Dating Couples ....................... 134 4. Conclusions and Future Directions ............................ 136

ANALYTIC PERSPECTIVES FOR ASSESSING THE CONSTRUCT:

BELIEF IN A JUST WORLD

Chapter 9. Measuring the Beliefs in a Just World ................. 141 Adrian Furnham

1. Introduction ................................................ 141 2. Two Measurement Approaches ............................... 142 3. The Development of Trait Measures ........................... 143

3.1. Identification ofthe Phenomena ........................... 144 3.2. Replication of the Effect .................................. 144 3.3. The Development of a Self-Report Measure ................. 145 3.4. Validation of the Measure ................................. 146 3.5. Factor Analysis Work and Multi-Dimensionality ............ 146 3.6. Multiple, Multi-Dimensional Measures ..................... 147 3.7. Doubts about the Original Concept ........................ 147 3.8. Acceptance and "Text-Bookization" ........................ 148

4. The Rubin and Peplau BJW Scale .............................. 149 5. The Development of Other Measures .......... , ............... 151

CONTENTS xiii

6. BJW Beliefs: Fundamental and Universal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 7. Future Developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Chapter 10. Eight Stages in the Development of Research on the Construct of Belief in a Just World? ....................... 163

fiirgen Maes

1. A Stage Sequence Proposed by Fumham (1990) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 2. Development of Just World Research .......................... 165

2.1. Stage 1: Identification of a Phenomenon ................... 166 2.2. Stage 2: Replication of the Effect .......................... 167 2.3. Stage 3: The Development of a Self-Report Measure ......... 169 2.4. Stage 4: Validation of the Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 2.5. Stage 5: Factor Analytic Work and Multi-Dimensionality . . . . . 172 2.6. Stage 6: Multiple Multi-Dimensional Measures ............. 174 2.7. Stage 7: Doubts about the Original Concept ................ 175 2.8. Stage 8: Acceptance and 'Text-Bookization' ................ 176

3. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Chapter 11. Methodological Strategies in Research to Validate Measures of Belief in a Just World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Manfred f. Schmitt

1. History and Aims of This Contribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 2. Synergetic Interaction of the Justice Motive and Belief in a Just

World ..................................................... 189 3. Belief in a Just World versus Centrality of Justice as Indicators of

the Justice Motive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 4. Delusion, Knowledge, and Justification Components of Belief in

a Just World ................................................ 191 4.1. Empirical Distribution of Belief in a Just World . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 4.2. Group Differences in Belief in a Just World ................. 193 4.3. Separating Belief in Justice and Belief in Control ............ 194

5. Correlations among Measures with Discriminant Content Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 5.1. Experimental Investigation of Discriminant Construct

Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 6. Possible Meanings of Low Belief in a Just World ................ 201 7. Combining Belief in a Just World with Preferences for

Distributive Justice Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 8. Methods for Clarifying the Correlations between Belief in a Just

World and Political Conservatism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 9. Concluding Considerations and Suggestions ................... 207

xiv

LOOKING BACK AND THEN FORWARD TO THE

NEXT GENERATION OF RESEARCH ON BJW

CONTENTS

Chapter 12. Belief in a Just World: A Hybrid of Justice Motive and Self-Interest? ............................................ 217

Leo Montada

1. BJW: The Justice Motive Blended with Self-Interest .............. 217 2. Facets of BJW ............................................... 220 3. Studies on BJW ............................................. 221

3.1. GBJW and Phenomena of Blaming the Victim for Self-Infliction (BVSI) ..................................... 222

3.2. Area-Specific Assessment of BJW: SPBJW and BVSI .......... 228 3.3. BJW and Preferences for Principles of Distributive Justice .... 229 3.4. Empathy, Identification, and Similarity of Fate .............. 232 3.5. BJW and the Defense of Self-Interest ....................... 234 3.6. BJW as a Personal Resource in Case of Victimization ......... 240

4. Summary and Outlook ....................................... 241

Chapter 13. The Two Forms of Belief in a Just World: Some Thoughts on Why and How People Care about Justice ...... 247

Melvin f. Lerner

1. BJW: Child's Fairy Tale or "Fundamental Delusion" ............. 248 1.1. Everyone Knows BJW Is a Childish Fantasy ................ 248 1.2."Normalizing" Injustices Means No Injustice Has Occurred ... 249 1.3. Religious Beliefs Provide Ultimate Justice .................. 250 1.4. Adult's Irrational Self-Blame .............................. 251

2. How Explain "Irrational Self-Blame"? ......................... 252 2.1. Anomalous Overriding of Rational Self-Interest ............. 252 2.2. Control Motive .......................................... 253 2.3. Correspondence Bias ..................................... 253 2.4. Persistence of Developmentally Earlier Blaming Process ..... 253

3. Two Forms of the Justice Motive and Belief in a Just World ....... 254 3.1. Rational, Normatively Conventional ....................... 254 3.2. Experiential Countemormative Scripts ..................... 255 3.3. Experimental Example of Two Forms of Reactions to

Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 3.4. Contemporary Theoretical Models of Two Underlying

Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 4. Methodological and Theoretical Implications ................... 259

4.1. Another Experimental Example: People Care Much More about Justice Than They Think ............................ 259

4.2. Justice as Rational Self-Interest ............................ 259

CONTENTS xv

4.3. Justice as the Inevitable Consequence of the Human Endowment and a Stable Environment .................... 260

4.4. How Does This Theory of Justice Differ from Rational Self-Interest? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

4.5. Where Do Stable Individual Differences Fit in This Theory? . . 263 4.6. What about the Use of Questionnaire Research Methods in

Studying the Two Forms of BJW? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 4.7. Once Again: How Important Is (BJW) the Justice Motive in

Peoples' Lives? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 5. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Index ........................................................ 271