Just-world hypothesis
Just world belief ( Belief in a just world) denotes a generalized expectation that people in life get that which they deserve. The focus of this approach, the individual pursuit is then to experience the world as orderly and predictable, this quest is part of a larger quest for control. Unjust appearing suffering of others threatens the just world belief. This attempts are motivated to restore the just world belief. These experiments can go in two completely opposite directions: on the one hand, there is the possibility to reduce the suffering of the victim (mainly through prosocial behavior). The other option is to devalue the victim (eg attribution of blame; then what looks like a defensive attribution).
The just world belief is based on early experiences in socialization, which was described by Piaget ( orig. 1932) as immanent justice of the child (as characteristic of the moral realism in moral judgment ). The child learns that rewards "good" behavior and "bad" behavior is punished. This has the consequence that the child passes from the pleasure principle to the reality principle. Thus the conditions are created to schedule Belohnungsaufschübe to achieve a goal. Therefore Long and Lerner ( 1974) argue for the " personal contract ", ie the willingness to defer rewards short and medium term, as an indicator of the just world belief to use.
The just -world beliefs can be measured as a feature of the personality, which is positively related internal locus of control beliefs. It can be distinguished from authoritarianism (Lerner, 1980). While authoritarianism implies a general negative view of minorities in the form of ethnocentrism, located just world belief refers to sympathy for winners and contempt for losers. The just world belief intersects with the pursuit of social responsibility and compliance to social rules. The relationship between faith and righteous World prosocial behavior seems to follow by the willingness of social rules taught.
An application field of the just world belief lies in the rehabilitation of accident victims. It is important for whether the accident is considered by the victim as fair or unfair fate and whether negative emotions such as hatred prevail (in the sense of " the victim struggles with his fate "). The just -world beliefs can be an important personal resource in coping with critical life events. An example is coping with unemployment.
Explanation: In religious ideas is often the just world belief anchored ( Last Judgement, Heaven and Hell ), which can cause people to use less for the change of earthly conditions.