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Psychology
intermediate

Belief in a just world: Review and critique of the individual difference literature

Adrian Furnham & Edward Procter (1989)

Published
Dec 1, 1989
Journal
British Journal of Social Psychology · Vol. 28 · No. 4
DOI
10.1111/j.2044-8309.1989.tb00880.x
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At a GlanceAI

Critical review of just-world belief measures, arguing for orthogonal just, unjust, and random world dimensions and better scales.

SummaryAI

This review synthesizes a decade of research linking self-reported belief in a just world to a wide range of psychological and demographic variables, assessing what the common Rubin & Peplau scales actually capture. It critiques the concept and measurement as potentially multidimensional, warning that treating just-world belief as a single trait may blur distinct beliefs. The authors propose that beliefs in a just, unjust, and random world may be orthogonal, reframing how individual differences should be modeled. They outline directions for improved self-report measurement and for research on the development (aetiology) of just-world belief within and across cultures.

Method SnapshotAI

Critical narrative review and evaluation of correlational findings from questionnaire-based just-world belief research.

BackgroundAI

Basic social/personality psychology of individual differences, measurement with self-report scales, and the just-world hypothesis tradition.

In Collections

Psychology41 papers

The Belief in a Just World

In this collection I gather (mostly) psychological studies devoted to people’s fundamental belief that the world is just. This construct, it seems to me, quite strongly affects our perception of the world and, importantly, our reaction to ongoing events — especially when we start blaming others, guided implicitly by precisely this motive. The collection includes both curated works, which at some point I read carefully and can say something sensible about, and new works being published on the topic.

ES
Evgeny Smirnov