Just World Bias

Just World Bias

Time for Reflection

Has this ever crossed your mind - Why do "bad things" happen to good people ? 

How do you justify an act of misfortune befalling on you or, for that matter, on someone else ?

What do the words, "lucky" and "unlucky" connotes to you ?

How do you respond to stories/ news capturing "fall from grace" or "rags to riches" ?

Most of us, in all probability, would view the above happenings through a lens of "destiny", wherein instead of providing any logical explanation we tend to believe and propose that everything that's  happening is bound to happen that way only. Making use of phrases like "Life takes a full circle", "you reap what you sow", "what goes around comes around", and similar, to describe our response to the above questions reiterates our belief in the concept of "destiny".

So, if you happen to be like most, where you tend to respond to any fortune/ misfortune as an act of destiny, then you suffer from what is known as "Just World Bias". Let's explore the bias a bit more

Definition and Background

"Just World Bias" refers to the assumption that a person's actions are inherently inclined to bring morally fair and fitting consequences to that person, to the end of all noble actions being eventually rewarded and all evil actions eventually punished. 

In other words, this bias implies the existence of a force/ power, cosmic justice, destiny, divine providence that's entrusted to ensure stability or moral order in the world. As per this bias, any misfortune befalling on a person, or for that matter, any fortune happening to a person, is rationalized by attributing it to the ground that the person "deserves it". 

The bias revolves around the belief that the world is just(fair) and people only get what they deserve. And when people's actions prove to be their undoing that misfortune happens. So, the victim is responsible for everything bad that happens (and also the credit for everything good that happens) to him/ her.

Melvin Lerner coined the term "belief in a just world" and the seminal experiment illustrating this bias was conducted by Melvin Lerner and Carolyn Simmons in 1960s. The experiments used shock paradigms to record observer responses to victimization. In one of the experiments, a group of volunteers were made to watch a woman (an actor for the experiment) receiving electric shocks. 

As the experiment proceeded with the woman receiving shocks on failing to give correct answers to a test, one group from the larger group of volunteers selected for the experiment, was allowed to intervene and choose a different mode for the woman. This group perceived the woman as innocent  and wanted to end her suffering. On the other hand, the other group was not allowed to intervene in any way as they continued to watch the woman suffer. This group found the woman guilty.

Lerner concluded that people who had no way of helping a person who was suffering found the person deserving of the pain or suffering due to her own actions and behavior. Many others have also researched the bias since Lerner and one of the notable research is the one by Zick Rubin and Letitia Anne Peplau. The two mentioned above developed a Just World Scale, to study how people who believe in a Just World, think and behave  

The victim is victimised more by being blamed as the cause of all that happens to him/ her.

Why Does Just World Bias occur ?

Since people want to believe that the world is fair, so they look at ways/ reasons to rationalize away injustice, very often resulting in blaming the victim itself for all its suffering, pain and misfortune. This strong belief is also triggered by an urge to perceive a balanced world and to justify our own inability to end the victim's suffering.

Another reason is the need to live in a comfortable, safe and secure environment which is characterized by a destiny-driven world.

So, in a nutshell, when a person's belief in a "Just World" is threatened does he/ she resort to derogating the victim, which happens to be a key tendency of a person suffering from this bias.

Indicators/ Symptoms of Just World Bias

Some of the indicators could be as mentioned below:

• When we overemphasize "destiny" as the rule of life
• When we ascribe someone's misfortune to his/ her intrinsic characteristics 
• When we completely ignore external factors/ circumstances as the reason for someone's fortune/ misfortune
• When we cover up our inability to end someone's suffering by resorting to the victim blaming tendency 
• When we engage in character assassination, mud-slinging, extrapolating someone's suffering/ misfortune, victim blaming attitude 

Impact of Just World Bias

Some of the benefits of believing in a "Just World" are 

• Helps us feel better about ourselves by protecting our self-esteem
• Makes us feel less anxious and fearful 
• Helps us feel less vulnerable as we tend to differentiate ourselves from the victims of ill fortune
• Always keeps us optimistic about life due to our belief that people get what they deserve
• Safeguards us from committing any wrongdoing and from potential guilt and shame

Some of the disadvantages of hanging onto the belief of a "Just World" are

• Fail to see the big picture in terms of how other variables (external factors) may also have contributed to the person's misfortune
• Build antipathy in us instead of empathy resulting in adversely impacting our inter-personal relationships
• Makes us delusion resulting in us being completely unprepared to deal with the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world around us
• Living in illusionary utopia which is far away from the actual reality
• No/ Limited development of essential skills like creativity, lateral thinking, innovation, and similar ones  

Real-Life Examples of Just World Bias

• One of the real incident about the bias is as mentioned below 

"When the British marched a group of German civilians around the Belsen concentration camp at the end of World War II to show them what their soldiers had done, one civilian said, “What terrible criminals these prisoners must have been to receive such treatment” (Hewstone, 1990) 

- Social Psychology and Human Nature, Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman, 2007(Brief Edition)/ 2016 (Comprehensive Edition)

• This bias is so clearly evident when we mention about criminals, criminals facing capital punishment, victims of terminal illness, victims of sexual assault, war victims, victims of mental illness or any other serious ailment, the discriminated lot.

Overcoming/ Addressing Just World Bias

• Accepting that deeds and destiny may not always have a connection
• Building a Belief System encompassing the yin-yang principle will provide a holistic view of the world
• Becoming aware about the VUCA nature of the world that we live in would open us to the realities of the dynamic and fluid nature of the world 
• Performing SWOT analysis will help identify the environmental factors impacting the event
• Building a more enlarged view/ perception of the world and not limit to viewing life through a lense of "destiny"
• Understanding the importance of inter-personal relationships and focus on improving empathy skills
• Stop labeling the victim and instead view the event from all possible perspectives to bring a more rational explanation for the event. Six Thinking Hats is a good tool to start with 
• Stop assuming that we can/ have control over other people's life 

Let's learn to ADJUST because life is not always JUST (fair) !