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

Abstract

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.

The Role of Revenge, Denial, and Terrorism Distress in Restoring Just World Beliefs: The Impact of the 2008 Mumbai Attacks on British and Indian Students

“…However, it must be noted that this study did not aim to investigate the reasons behind this disparity in strength of BJW, assess whether the BJW are directly due to experiences of injustice (Fasel & Spini, 2010;Ferguson, 2000), or explore whether BJW provide a societal function (Furnham, 1993;Furnham & Procter, 1989), which allows Indian participants to confront the inequalities inherent in the environment as if they were just, stable, and orderly.…”

“…However, research studies from Northern Ireland (Ferguson, 2000;Glennon, Joseph, & Hunter, 1993) and the Former Yugoslavian states of Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia (Fasel & Spini, 2010) have challenged the conception that BJW provide a societal function that allows the condemnation of victims of inequality and injustice. Instead, these three studies suggest that direct personal experiences of victimization or inequality threaten BJW, and in turn events that break these inequalities down and/or remove victimizing experiences allow the reconstruction of BJW.…”

The impact of acknowledgement and denial of responsibility for harm on victim groups' perceptions of justice, power, and intergroup attitudes

“…Being harmed can shatter the sense of justice and reduce the belief in a just world (e.g., Fasel & Spini, 2010;Janoff-Bulman, 1992). Experiencing injustice arouses feelings of anger and resentment and gives rise to actions to restore justice (Vidmar, 2001).…”

When Is Collective Exposure to War Events Related to More Acceptance of Collective Guilt?

“…Such operationalization does not change our findings: both types of events have a nonsignificant impact on collective guilt acceptance (in models equivalent to model 1; Table 4). Furthermore, we examined the impact of number of experienced war events, as a measure of cumulative victimization (see Hewstone et al 2004; Fasel and Spini 2010). Such operationalization of personal war victimization does not change our findings (all results available from the first author upon request).…”