Belief in a Just World: Victim Blaming
Varline Jean-Marie
Florida International University
Belief in a Just World: Victim Blaming
A just world is defined as a world in which people do get what they deserve. This belief in a just world (BJW) serves important functions for individuals as it helps them to navigate through the social world. Importantly, it enables people to strive for long-term goals (Bal & Van den Bos, 2012; Hafer, 2000a). That is, if people can have faith that everyone gets what they deserve and, hence, that their efforts will pay off in the end, they are able to deal with the uncertainty that is associated with investing in long-term goals (Bal & Van den Bos, 2012). Hence, the BJW is a belief that people want …show more content…
Estimates suggest that approximately 30% of youths are bullied during adolescence (Newman, Holden, & Delville, 2005; Olweus, 1993). Bullying can be understood as the abusive treatment of an individual using force or coercion, which is intentional and occurs repeatedly (Campbell, 2005; Griffin & Gross, 2003; Olweus, 1993). Whereas direct bullying includes behaviors that are overtly aggressive such as hitting and name calling, indirect or relational bullying often involves the bully spreading rumors about the intended victim, calling the victim hurtful names, or excluding and isolating the victim from social circles. Regardless of the method, bullying has been found to cause a number of emotional, psychological, and behavioral problems among its victims (Hawker & Boulton, 2000).
We predict that participants in our rejection condition who write about a time they rejected another person will not engage in the just world bias to the same extent as those in the accepted or deserved conditions where they write about a time they either accepted or thought someone got what they deserved. That is, participants in the accepted and deserved conditions will agree that a bullying victim’s personality, character, and behavior led to her bullying while participants in the rejection condition will disagree that her personality, character, and behavior led to her …show more content…
Garadeau, C. F., & Rodkin, P. C. (2010). Effects of classroom embeddedness and density on the social status of aggressive and victimized children. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 30, 76– 101. doi:10.1177/0272431609350922
Correia, I., Vala, J., & Aguiar, P. (2001). The effects of belief in a just world and victim’s innocence on secondary victimization, judgements of justice and deservingness. Social Justice Research, 14, 327–342. doi:10.1023/A:1014324125095
Lerner, M. J., & Goldberg, J. H. (1999). When do decent people blame victims? The differing effects of the explicit-rational and implicitexperiential cognitive systems. In S. Chaiken & T. Trope (Eds.), Dual process theories in social psychology (pp. 627–640). New York, NY: Guilford Press
Newman, M. L., Holden, G. W., & Delville, Y. (2005). Isolation and the stress of being bullied. Journal of Adolescence, 28, 343–357. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2004.08.002
Pennebaker, J. W. (1994). Some suggestions for running a confession study. Web-posted manual. Retrieved from http://homepage.psy.utexas
Varline Jean-Marie
Florida International University
Belief in a Just World: Victim Blaming
A just world is defined as a world in which people do get what they deserve. This belief in a just world (BJW) serves important functions for individuals as it helps them to navigate through the social world. Importantly, it enables people to strive for long-term goals (Bal & Van den Bos, 2012; Hafer, 2000a). That is, if people can have faith that everyone gets what they deserve and, hence, that their efforts will pay off in the end, they are able to deal with the uncertainty that is associated with investing in long-term goals (Bal & Van den Bos, 2012). Hence, the BJW is a belief that people want …show more content…
Estimates suggest that approximately 30% of youths are bullied during adolescence (Newman, Holden, & Delville, 2005; Olweus, 1993). Bullying can be understood as the abusive treatment of an individual using force or coercion, which is intentional and occurs repeatedly (Campbell, 2005; Griffin & Gross, 2003; Olweus, 1993). Whereas direct bullying includes behaviors that are overtly aggressive such as hitting and name calling, indirect or relational bullying often involves the bully spreading rumors about the intended victim, calling the victim hurtful names, or excluding and isolating the victim from social circles. Regardless of the method, bullying has been found to cause a number of emotional, psychological, and behavioral problems among its victims (Hawker & Boulton, 2000).
We predict that participants in our rejection condition who write about a time they rejected another person will not engage in the just world bias to the same extent as those in the accepted or deserved conditions where they write about a time they either accepted or thought someone got what they deserved. That is, participants in the accepted and deserved conditions will agree that a bullying victim’s personality, character, and behavior led to her bullying while participants in the rejection condition will disagree that her personality, character, and behavior led to her …show more content…
Garadeau, C. F., & Rodkin, P. C. (2010). Effects of classroom embeddedness and density on the social status of aggressive and victimized children. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 30, 76– 101. doi:10.1177/0272431609350922
Correia, I., Vala, J., & Aguiar, P. (2001). The effects of belief in a just world and victim’s innocence on secondary victimization, judgements of justice and deservingness. Social Justice Research, 14, 327–342. doi:10.1023/A:1014324125095
Lerner, M. J., & Goldberg, J. H. (1999). When do decent people blame victims? The differing effects of the explicit-rational and implicitexperiential cognitive systems. In S. Chaiken & T. Trope (Eds.), Dual process theories in social psychology (pp. 627–640). New York, NY: Guilford Press
Newman, M. L., Holden, G. W., & Delville, Y. (2005). Isolation and the stress of being bullied. Journal of Adolescence, 28, 343–357. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2004.08.002
Pennebaker, J. W. (1994). Some suggestions for running a confession study. Web-posted manual. Retrieved from http://homepage.psy.utexas