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

Abstract

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): 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 cross-cultural comparison of Turkish and Kyrgyz students’ belief in a just world

“…Contrary to the expectations, we found that Kyrgyz students are higher in their JWB than the Turkish students in both general and personal Just world beliefs. These findings are in line with Umberson's (1993) study and the meta-analysis of Malahy et al, (2009), which found that while inequality increased so did just world beliefs. This supported the thesis that higher levels of just world beliefs, as is the case with the Kyrgyz sample, served as a stress buffering effect against the aftermaths of climbing poverty, joblessness, inequality, and corruption etc.…”

Seeking structure in social organization: Compensatory control and the psychological advantages of hierarchy.

“…To the extent that hierarchies are commonly the way in which systems are organized, defending the status quo often entails defending hierarchies (Gaucher, Kay, & Laurin, 2010;Kaiser et al, 2013). For example, system justification research demonstrates that even disadvantaged individuals who live in socially-stratified systems will bolster and defend a variety of hierarchies including stratification systems based on gender (Glick & S. T. Fiske, 2001;Jost & Kay, 2005;Laurin, Shepherd, & Kay, 2010), race (Jost, Pelham, & Carvallo, 2002), and economic circumstance (Kay, Czaplinski, & Jost, 2009;Kay & Jost, 2003;Malahy, Rubinlicht, & Kaiser, 2009). From a system justification perspective, therefore, support for hierarchies is often a means of fulfilling the broader motivation to believe that one's social systems are legitimate.…”

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

“…Ferguson (2000) observed a reinforcement of the belief in a just world among members of the two groups before and after the cease-fire of 1994, which launched a growing wave of hope for peace in Northern Ireland. The importance of temporal and contextual variables was also emphasized in a recent cross-temporal meta-analysis by Malahy, Rubinlicht, and Kaiser (2009). This study revealed an increase in American college students' scores on a belief in a just world scale from 1973 to 2006.…”

“…At first sight, this conclusion may be at odds with the meta-analysis of Malahy et al (2009), who showed that increases in injustice due to income disparities were correlated with higher levels of belief in a just world. However, essential differences exist between the studies taken into consideration in this meta-analysis and the current study.…”