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Belief in a just world: research progress over the past decade

Adrian Furnham (2003)

Published
Apr 1, 2003
Journal
Personality and Individual Differences · Vol. 34 · No. 5
DOI
10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00072-7
View Original

At a GlanceAI

Decade-spanning review of belief in a just world research, summarizing key findings, debates, and directions for future work.

SummaryAI

This review synthesizes research on belief in a just world (BJW) from the preceding decade, organizing what was learned about the construct and its correlates. It matters because it consolidates a scattered literature on how BJW relates to judgments of fairness, victim-blaming, and broader social attitudes. By mapping major themes and unresolved issues, it helps researchers clarify what BJW explains, where evidence is mixed, and which questions should guide the next wave of studies.

Method SnapshotAI

Narrative literature review of belief in a just world research published over roughly the prior decade.

BackgroundAI

Basic knowledge of social and personality psychology, especially justice perceptions and attribution processes.

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

An alternative review of belief in a just world.

— ES