Publicação
Belief in a just world and immanent justice reasoning in the sexist reaction to innocent victims
| Resumo: | People are motivated to believe that the world is just and often affirm this belief even in extreme situations through immanent justice reasoning (IJR) and secondary victimization behavior, especially when this supports their belief in a just world (BJW). We investigated this phenomenon by presenting participants with a scenario involving a car accident victim who either affirmed or threatened BJW. In Study 1 (N = 106), participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which a male victim’s past behavior either affirmed or threatened the BJW. Results showed that participants who endorsed individual differences in BJW more strongly reported more IJR and secondary victimization attitudes in the BJW-affirming condition than in the BJW-threatening condition. In Study 2 (N = 158), we presented that the victim was a woman, which allowed us to replicate the findings from Study 1 for participants with lower hostile sexism. However, participants with higher hostile sexism who endorsed individual differences in BJW more strongly responded with more IJR and secondary victimization in the BJW-threatening condition than in the BJW-affirming condition. These findings extend the understanding of justice motives and show how BJW interacts with ideological attitudes such as sexism to shape responses to victimization. |
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| Autores principais: | Negreiros, Taciana Silva |
| Outros Autores: | Pereira, Cicero Roberto |
| Assunto: | Belief in a just world Immanent justice reasoning Sexism Secondary victimization |
| Ano: | 2025 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso restrito |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | People are motivated to believe that the world is just and often affirm this belief even in extreme situations through immanent justice reasoning (IJR) and secondary victimization behavior, especially when this supports their belief in a just world (BJW). We investigated this phenomenon by presenting participants with a scenario involving a car accident victim who either affirmed or threatened BJW. In Study 1 (N = 106), participants were randomly assigned to a condition in which a male victim’s past behavior either affirmed or threatened the BJW. Results showed that participants who endorsed individual differences in BJW more strongly reported more IJR and secondary victimization attitudes in the BJW-affirming condition than in the BJW-threatening condition. In Study 2 (N = 158), we presented that the victim was a woman, which allowed us to replicate the findings from Study 1 for participants with lower hostile sexism. However, participants with higher hostile sexism who endorsed individual differences in BJW more strongly responded with more IJR and secondary victimization in the BJW-threatening condition than in the BJW-affirming condition. These findings extend the understanding of justice motives and show how BJW interacts with ideological attitudes such as sexism to shape responses to victimization. |
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