Abstract

The Belief in a just world as an individual difference variable was investigated in three studies. Study 1 assessed the psychometric properties and correlates of Rubin and Peplau's belief in a just world scale. Results indicate that the scale measures four separate factors, and that males and females have a different factor structure. The belief in a just world was found to correlate with internal locus of control and, weakly, with interpersonal trust and intolerance for ambiguity. ;In study 2, a new global belief in a just world scale was developed and initally validated. The scale proved to be psychometrically superior to Rubin and Peplau's scale. As predicted, the new scale correlated positively with internal locus of control, trust, and with personal, interpersonal, and political spheres of justice. ;In Study 3, multidimensional scaling was used to assess whether high, compared to low, believers in a just world have a more rigid view of justice. Subjects read scenarios of unjust events, grouped these events into piles, and provided descriptions for each pile. They then made similarity judgements for all possible comparison of pile descriptions. It was predicted that high, compared to low, believers in a just world would use fewer dimensions, place more importance on each dimension, and use fewer piles. ;Contrary to predictions, the same three dimensional configuration was obtained for both populations: system versus person blame, characterological versus behavioral injustice, and unequal status/normative violations versus equal status/interpersonal violations. The importance attached to each dimension did not differ. There was, however, suggestive evidence that low believers in a just world created more piles and tend toward greater attributional complexity. Overall, there was weak support suggesting that people who strongly believe in a just world have a more rigid view of justice than people who do not believe in a just world