Time frame and justice motive: Future perspective moderates the adaptive function of general belief in a just world.

Background: The human ability to envision the future, that is, to take a future perspective (FP), plays a key role in the justice motive and its function in transcending disadvantages and misfortunes. The present research investigated whether individual (Study 1) and situational (Study 2) differences in FP moderated the association of general belief in a just world (GBJW) with psychological resilience. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated FP, GBJW, and resilience in samples of adolescents (n = 223) and disaster survivors (n = 218) in China. In Study 1, adolescents revealed stronger GBJW than PBJW, and GBJW uniquely predicted resilience in the daily lives of those with high FP (but not those with low FP). In Study 2, natural priming of FP (vs. no FP) facilitated the association of GBJW with resilience after disaster. Conclusions/Significance: Supporting predictions, participants endorsed GBJW more strongly than PBJW. Further, GBJW interacted with FP in both studies, such that there was an association between GBJW and resilience at high but not low levels of FP. The results corroborate recent findings suggesting that GBJW may be more psychologically adaptive than PBJW among some populations. They also confirm that focusing on the future is an important aspect of the adaptive function of just-world beliefs

The belief in a just world and distress at school

This article investigates the relationship between the belief in a just world (BJW) and distress at school. On the basis of just world theory, the authors argue that strong student BJW should be associated with low school distress. Two questionnaire studies with German secondary school students attending grades 7–13 are reported. Both studies found strong BJW to be associated with less distress at school, better grades, and the evaluation of grades and teachers as more just. Moreover, the relationship between strong BJW and low school distress persisted when controlled for grades, justice of grades, and teacher justice. This relationship held for all students, independently of their school track, grade level, or gender. Overall, the pattern of results reveals school distress to have a unique association with BJW and school-specific justice cognitions

Beliefs in a Just World, Subjective Well-Being and Attitudes Towards Refugees Among Refugee Workers

Previous research has shown that the belief that the world is fair to the self (BJW-self) is positively related to indices of subjective well-being, whereas the belief that the world is fair to others (BJW-others) is positively related to harsher social attitudes. The present study aims to investigate the relation between these two forms of beliefs in a just world and the subjective well-being and social attitudes of people working with refugees. A sample of 253 refugee workers completed measures of BJW-others, BJW-self, perceived stress, life satisfaction, attitudes towards refugees and empathy for refugees. We found that refugee workers with stronger BJW-self reported experiencing less stress and more life satisfaction. Stronger BJW-others, however, predicted harsher attitudes towards refugees while controlling for BJW-self. These findings highlight the important function that justice beliefs play in the subjective well-being and social attitudes of refugee workers

Looking ahead through lenses of justice: The relevance of just-world beliefs to intentions and confidence in the future

Recent research distinguishes the belief in a just-world for the self (BJW-self) from that for others (BJW-others), showing BJW-self to be associated with subjective well-being and BJW-others to be associated with harsh social attitudes. The present research examines the implications of these two types of just-world belief for aspects of motivation and ideation about the future. A sample of 100 young British adults living in assisted accommodation completed measures of BJW-self, BJW-others, life satisfaction and intention to engage in delinquent behaviour. They also listed their personal goals and indicated their confidence that they would attain them. In partial correlation and hierarchical regression analyses, BJW-self predicted confidence in the realization of goals, but was inversely related to delinquent intentions. In contrast, BJW-others was directly related to delinquent intentions but inversely related to confidence in achieving socially legitimate personal goals. These results were not attributable to variations in life satisfaction or in the achievability of participants' goal