Investment in Long-Term Goals and Commitment to Just Means Drive the Need to Believe in a Just World

Abstract

The author hypothesized that the less one focuses on long-term goals, or the less one plans to achieve goals through just means, the less essential is the belief in a just world (BJW) and the less one will work at maintaining this belief when it is threatened. In Studies 1 and 2, participants’ focus on long-term investments was either manipulated or measured, and their reactions to a victim who presented a high or low threat to the BJW were assessed. In Study 2, the tendency to obtain goals through unjust means (delinquency) also was measured. As predicted, strong long-term focus and low-delinquency participants reacted more negatively toward the high-threat victim, presumably to maintain the BJW. Study 3 showed that the more one focuses on long-term investments and the less one uses unjust means, the stronger one’s BJW.

Belief in a Just World and Commitment to Long-Term Deserved Outcomes

“…Under these conditions, people should engage in stronger attempts to preserve the belief when it is threatened. This reasoning was supported in two experiments (Hafer, 2000b, Studies 1 and 2), one in which a focus on long-term goals was manipulated (via an essay writing task), and one in which the focus on longterm goals was measured as a chronic individual difference variable. In both investigations, participants were exposed to a victim who posed either a strong or weak threat to a belief in a just world (i.e., the victim was innocent vs. responsible for her suffering in Study 1; the victim's innocent suffering continued or was in the past in Study 2).…”

“…In initial research on the function of a belief in a just world investigated in the present study, Hafer (2000b) reasoned that, if a belief in a just world serves to encourage striving toward long-term deserved outcomes, then a belief in a just world should be more essential when long-term goals are particularly salient. Under these conditions, people should engage in stronger attempts to preserve the belief when it is threatened.…”

Experimental Research on Just-World Theory: Problems, Developments, and Future Challenges.

“…Though the topic of function was addressed in detail in Lerner's early essays on the development of the belief (see the Two Conceptualizations of Belief in a Just World section), little has been written on this subject until recently (e.g., Dalbert, 2001;Hafer, 2000bHafer, , 2002c.…”

“…Furthermore, Hafer (2000b) argued that given this function, people should have a greater need to believe in a just world if they have a strong focus on long-term investments and a strong desire to obtain goals through socially acceptable means that society dictates deserve certain positively valued outcomes: The more people need to believe in a just world, the more they should be motivated to preserve a sense of justice in the face of contradictory evidence.…”

“…After all, without strong theoretically driven hypotheses about when particular strategies will be most relevant, it is difficult to make a priori predictions about reactions to justworld threats (see Schmitt, 1998). For example, researchers often find predicted just-world effects on only some of their criteria (e.g., Correia & Vala, 2003; K. L. Dion & Dion, 1987;Drout & Gaertner, 1994;Hafer, 2000bHafer, , 2002cHagedoorn et al, 2002;Pancer, 1988;Wyer et al, 1985). Such findings may partially reflect the fact that certain strategies for maintaining a belief in a just world are preferred in a given situation.…”