Seeing justice in poverty: The belief in a just world and ideas about inequalities (1)

The aim of this research was to empirically link the belief in a just world to a variety of ideas about social inequalities. Drawing from cognitive dissonance theory, it was argued that adherents of the Just World Belief redefine and reinterpret perceived inequalities in order to reduce or eliminate the contradiction between the two cognitions. Using data from a probability sample of adults, six hypotheses were formally stated and empirically tested. All six were supported. The greater the acceptance of the Just World Belief, the greater the likelihood of perceiving inequalities as fair, inevitable, and immutable. Also, the belief was positively related to the odds of derogating the poor, praising the wealthy, and favoring individualistic explanations of inequalities over structural ones. Lastly, the Just World Belief was inversely related to the likelihood of perceiving inequalities as extensive.