Living in a Social World
Psy 324: Advanced Social Psychology
Spring, 1998

Cultural Influence on Just World Beliefs
By
Liz Carmona

   A significant amount of research has found there to be a desire for individuals to believe that the world is a just place where good people are rewarded and bad people are punished. It has also been noted that individuals vary, both between cultures and within them, in the degree to which they believe that the world is a just place.

    Adrian Furnham (1991) compared samples from 12 different countries (America, Australia, Britain, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, and Zimbabwe) with regard to their scores on the Rubin and Peplau (1973) Just World Scale. This scale measures the extent to which one believes that the world is just or unjust. As mentioned earlier, just world beliefs are beliefs that the world is fair and that the good are rewarded and the bad are punished. On the other hand, unjust world beliefs are just the opposite.

    The findings of this study were interpreted along four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede, as cited by Furnham(1991): power-distance (the extent to which a society weighs inequalities in areas such as prestige, wealth, and power), uncertainty avoidance (the extent to which a culture copes with uncertainty through technology, law, and religion), individualism (the way people live together in a society and the relationship between the individual and the collective society), and masculinity (the sex roles that are seen in families, schools, peer groups, and the media). The only statistically significant finding was between just world beliefs and the power-distance dimension, such that countries with more property, wealth, and power tended to have strong just world beliefs, whereas those with little or no power and wealth had unjust world beliefs.

    This finding makes sense once the function of belief in a just world is understood. As extensive literature has found, just world beliefs help people cope with disturbing or threatening events (rape, poverty, and racism). Someone may hold just world beliefs because of personal experience, but there has also been evidence that the belief is functional for a society (Furnham, 1991). For example, both India and South Africa are countries that contain extremes of wealth and poverty, and both had the highest just and unjust world beliefs. The just world beliefs held by the wealthy and powerful may help reduce feelings of guilt about the obvious injustices that surround them. In addition, the high scores for belief in an unjust world can be explained by the personal injustices that the poor and powerless have suffered. Furnham also found that just world beliefs were negatively correlated with uncertainty avoidance and individualism and positively correlated with masculinity, although none of these results were significant.

    In addition, many of the major Western religions appear to endorse a belief in a just world: the righteous are rewarded and the sinners are punished (Rubin and Peplau, 1975). But, the connection between religion and just world beliefs has not been clearly established in the literature. Zweigenhaft, Phillips, Adams, Morse, and Horan (1985) found Catholicism to be the only major Western religion positively correlated with belief in a just world. The beliefs expressed on The Catholic Mobile make this positive correlation understandable. However, Benson (1992) found no association between religiosity and just world beliefs. Based on such inconsistent findings, Crozier and Joseph (1997) examined if the relationship between religion and just world beliefs differed along the three spheres of the Multidimensional Belief in a Just World Scale developed by Furnham and Procter (1992). The study found religiosity to be weakly associated with belief in a personal just world (control over the nonsocial environment), and it was not found to be associated with the other two categories: interpersonal just world beliefs (control over other people) or sociopolitical (control over economic and political events). More extensive research in this area is clearly needed.

    To further illustrate how these correlates may be influential between cultures, it is useful to examine the results of one study that compared Japanese students with American students on their just world beliefs. Mahler, Greenberg, and Hayashi (1981) found that Japanese students held significantly weaker beliefs in a just world than Americans. They attributed this difference, in part, to the fact that Japanese subjects lack the cultural background of Westernized American subjects. Rubin and Peplau discuss the cultural background that these researchers are referring to in a 1975 study. They argue that children of Western societies grow up with fairy tales and popular myths that teach that the virtuous are rewarded and that those who misbehave will be punished. They also argue that authoritarianism, which teaches idealized respect for authority and that power and prestige are signs of merit, is characteristic of Western culture and reinforces the notion that the world is just. Finally, Western religion and the Protestant Work Ethic are parts of American culture that contribute to a fairly high belief in a just world. The basic tenets of the Protestant Work Ethic link hard work, financial success, and spiritual salvation, all of which are consistent with the ideas of the Just World Hypothesis. Thus, a culture, such as the Japanese, in which these things may not be present or are simply different, would reasonably have different beliefs about the justness of the world.

    Even more influential to the different just world scores, according to Mahler, Greenberg, and Hayashi (1981), is that the Japanese have repeatedly been found to have more of an external locus of control, whereas Americans tend to have a greater internal locus of control. Individuals with an internal locus of control believe that people can determine their rewards and reinforcements through their own actions; whereas, those with an external locus of control believe that they are at the mercy of external forces such as luck or fate (Furnham & Procter, 1989). Belief in a just world has been found to be positively correlated with an internal locus of control, such that both provide the individual with a sense of control over his/her environment. Spend a few minutes taking a test to determine your personal locus of control.

    Clearly, locus of control, along with all of the other correlates, can vary significantly within a culture in addition to between cultures. Other factors that vary within a culture that have been thought to potentially correlate with just world beliefs are gender, age, and social status. Rubin and Peplau (1975) hypothesized that one's belief in a just world will be diminished to the extent that that person has had direct experience with injustice. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that women, the elderly, and the underprivileged, would believe less in a just world than would men, younger people, and the more privileged. Unfortunately, the findings in these areas have been rather inconsistent. It does appear, though, that gender and just world beliefs are not significantly correlated. O'Conner, Morrison, McLeod, and Anderson (1996) conducted a meta-analysis of 33 studies that examined the relationship between gender and belief in a just world and found no significant correlation between the two.

    There is an extensive amount of research that examines numerous correlates of belief in a just world that are not mentioned here. Unfortunately, such a broad analysis is beyond the scope of this paper. All of the studies are extremely interesting, though, and further investigation would be worthwhile. Referring to the research studies cited below and through out this tutorial would be a great place to begin.

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References

    Benson, D.E.(1992). Why do people believe in a just world? Testing explanations. Sociological Spectrum, 12, 73-104.

rozier, S., & Joseph, S. (1997). Religiosity and sphere-specific just world beliefs in 16- to 18- years olds. Journal of Social Psychology, 137(4), 510-513.

urnham, A. (1991). Just world beliefs in twelve societies. The Journal of Social Psychology, 133(3),, 317-329.

Furnham, A., & Procter, E. (1989). Belief in a just world: Review and critique of the individual difference literature. British Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 365-384.

    Furnham, A., & Procter, E. (1992). Sphere-specific just world beliefs and attitudes to AIDS. Human Relations, 45, 265-280.

    Mahler, I., Greenberg, L., & Hayashi, H. (1981). A comparative study of rules of justice: Japanese versus American. Psychologia, 24, 1-8.

    O'Conner, W.E., Morrison, T.G., McLeod, L.D., & Anderson, D. (1996). A meta-analytic review of the relationship between gender and belief in a just world. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 11(1), 141-148.

    Rubin, Z., & Peplau, L.A. (1973). Belief in a just world and reactions to another's lot: A study of participants in the national draft lottery. Journal of Social Issues, 29, 73-93.

    Rubin, Z., & Peplau, L.A. (1975). Who believes in a just world? Journal of Social Issues, 31(3), 65-90.

    Zweigenhaft, R.L., Philips, B.K.G., Adams, K.A., Morse, C.K., & Horan, A.E. (1985). Religious preference and belief in a just world. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 3, 333-348.

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