Key Takeaways
- The just-world phenomenon leads people to blame victims for their misfortunes, believing the world is fair and people get what they deserve.
- Educating yourself on social inequalities can help challenge biases and reduce victim-blaming.
- Instead of judging others, practice compassion and try to understand other people’s emotions.
The just-world phenomenon is the tendency to believe that the world is just and that people get what they deserve. Because people want to believe the world is fair, they will look for ways to explain or rationalize injustice, often blaming the person in the situation who is actually the victim. This phenomenon explains why people sometimes blame victims for their own misfortune, even when they have no control over the events that befall them.
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How the Just-World Phenomenon Works
The just-world theory suggests that when people do fall victim to misfortune, others tend to look for things that might explain their circumstances. In other words, people tend to look for something or someone to blame for unfortunate events.
But rather than simply attributing a bad turn of events to bad luck or forces beyond someone’s control, people tend to blame an individual’s behavior.
Here’s how it works:
- Witnessing a bad event: People witness someone else experience a misfortune. This might be an accident, a crime, a divorce, or some other adverse event.
- Belief threat: This experience challenges their underlying idea that the world is safe and fair, which creates feelings of anxiety and fear.
- Reinterpretation: To avoid those feelings of anxiety, people need to find some way to explain the event. Blaming the individual allows them to keep believing the world is safe. Instead of acknowledging that bad things can happen to anyone, casting blame helps them believe that it won’t happen to them.
History of the Just-World Phenomenon
Melvin J. Lerner proposed the just-world theory (also called the just-world hypothesis) in the 1960s. He noticed that people often thought of the world as fair and just in order to make sense of or cope with various injustices.
How It Affects Behavior
The just world phenomenon explains why people often blame others for their own misfortunes. Rather than considering external factors and feeling empathy, we often leap to conclusions and try to make people “deserve” what’s happened to them.
This belief also leads people to think that when good things happen to people, it is because they are good and deserving of their happy fortune.
- People who are extremely fortunate are often seen as more deserving of their good luck.
- Rather than attributing their success to luck or circumstance, people tend to ascribe their fortune to intrinsic individual characteristics.
- These people are often seen as being more intelligent and hard-working than less fortunate people.
When It Feels Helpful
The just-world phenomenon does have some benefits. Like other types of cognitive bias, this phenomenon:
Research has also found that people tend to feel more satisfied with their lives when they believe they personally are treated fairly by the world. Beliefs about whether others are treated fairly matter far less.
When It Can Cause Harm
Obviously, this tendency also has some major downsides:
- The just world phenomenon might explain why people sometimes fail to help or feel compassion for those who are unhoused, experiencing addiction, or victims of violence.
- Blaming others for their misfortunes can make people less likely to offer assistance to others who need it.
- By blaming victims, people fail to see how the situation and other variables contributed to another person’s misfortunes.
- Additionally, research has shown a link between belief in the just-world theory and dishonest behavior.
- Instead of expressing empathy, the just-world phenomenon sometimes causes people to be uninterested or even scorn troubled individuals.
Real-World Examples
- Religion: A classic example of this tendency is found in the Bible’s Book of Job. In the text, Job suffers a series of terrible calamities. At one point, his former friend suggests that Job must have done something terrible to have deserved his misfortunes. Research has shown a strong link between the just-world viewpoint and religiosity.
- Crime: More modern examples of the just-world phenomenon can be seen in many places. Victims of sexual assault are often blamed for their attack, as others suggest that it was the victim’s own behavior that caused the assault.
- Discrimination: Another example of the just-world phenomenon is when people blame the victims of hate crimes. For instance, in cases of police violence against Black individuals, some say there are just “a few bad apples” in the police force. But this denies the reality of the victim’s experience and the role systemic racism plays in the violence.
- Moral judgements: The just-world phenomenon is also apparent in discrimination and moral judgment against people with HIV or AIDS. Some people believe that those living with HIV or AIDS do not deserve access to high-quality healthcare, for instance, because they are “to blame” for their illness.
- Poverty: People living in poverty often face prejudice and are blamed for their circumstances. If the world is fair, people living without adequate resources are simply not doing something right, the just-world argument suggests. This outlook ignores the role of factors like economic inequalities, lack of access to resources, trauma, and racism.
Why People Want to Believe the World Is Fair
Why do people use the just-world perspective to explain events and behavior? A few different explanations have been proposed:
- Fear of vulnerability: People don’t like to think about their own risk of becoming a victim, which is why they often blame the victim’s behavior when a crime happens. The just world phenomenon allows people to believe they can avoid becoming crime victims simply by avoiding certain behaviors.
- Reducing anxiety: Another possible explanation for the just-world phenomenon is that people want to reduce the anxiety that is caused by the world’s injustices. Believing that the individual is completely responsible for their misfortune, people can continue to believe that the world is fair and just.
How to Avoid the Just-World Phenomenon
Being optimistic about the world around you can be a good thing, but there are times when the just-world phenomenon might prevent you from seeing reality. This cognitive bias can be challenging to overcome, but awareness can help.
These are some tips to help avoid the just-world phenomenon:
- Practice empathy: Instead of stewing in anger or irritation about someone else’s situation, try having compassion for what they’re going through. Understanding others’ emotions may actually lower your own stress levels as well.
- Avoid victim-blaming: Victim-blaming is something many of us do without realizing it. But remember, only the perpetrator of a crime is responsible for their actions. There are also many external factors that contribute to homelessness and poverty, for instance. Don’t assume you know why negative things happen to someone.
- Learn about social injustice: By educating yourself on social inequalities, you’ll find that people are subjected to harsh realities every day. Our biases and prejudices can keep us from seeing the truth. When you find yourself judging someone’s situation, ask yourself if your outlook is affected by racism, sexism, ageism, or discrimination of any kind.
- Consider the source: When you hear a story on the news, asking yourself some of the following questions can shift your perspective: Whose story is being told? Am I hearing more than one perspective or only one person’s viewpoints? Is it possible I’m not hearing the full story or all of the details?
- Explore your emotions: Underneath your judgment of someone else’s circumstance, you might find fear and anxiety because you worry that what happened to them can happen to you, too. Process your emotions and be gentle with yourself.
When making attributions, focus on looking at all elements of the situation. This includes accounting for a person’s behavior and things such as environmental factors, societal pressures, and cultural expectations.
It isn’t easy to face the fact that the world can be an unfair place. But by doing so, you’ll be able to show more kindness to others and even to yourself when negative things happen.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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