Abstract
Our research examines the relationship between just-world beliefs and helping. Specifically, we pose that the belief in just world increases helping intentions via perceptions of meaning in life. Consistently, across two studies we found that higher levels of just-world beliefs corresponded with stronger helping intentions. In Study 1, individual differences in just-world beliefs correlated positively with helping intentions. In Study 2, experimentally induced higher (vs. lower) levels of just-world beliefs led to stronger intentions to help others. In both studies, we found that the presence of meaning in life mediated the effects of just-world beliefs on helping intentions, indicating that these prosocial effects of just-world beliefs are established through the impression that life is meaningful. We further found that positive affect plays a mediational role in these effects by linking the perceptions of meaning to helping intentions. This research provides insights into the socially desirable consequences of just-world beliefs by highlighting the crucial roles of existential appraisals and affective states.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Search for meaning in life was assessed in Study 1 and 2 because we used the complete MLQ (Steger et al. 2006), which includes this subscale. However, given that it was not central to our examination, we did not consider this subscale in our main analyses.
The measurement of procedural and distributive justice for the self and others (PDJS; Lucas et al. 2011) served as an additional beliefs scale.
References
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497.
Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., Aaker, J. L., & Garbinsky, E. N. (2013). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 8(6), 505–516. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.830764.
Bègue, L. (2014). Do just-world believers practice private charity? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 44(1), 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12201.
Begue, L., & Bastounis, M. (2003). Two spheres of belief in justice: Extensive support for the bidimensional model of belief in a just world. Journal of Personality, 71(3), 435–463. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.7103007.
Bierhoff, H. W., Klein, R., & Kramp, P. (1991). Evidence for the altruistic personality from data on accident research. Journal of Personality, 59(2), 263–280. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1991.tb00776.x.
Bless, H. (2001). Mood and the use of general knowledge structures. In L. L. Martin & G. L. Clore (Eds.), Theories of mood and cognition. A user’s guidebook (pp. 9–26). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Caprara, G. V., & Steca, P. (2005). Self-efficacy beliefs as determinants of prosocial behavior conducive to life satisfaction across ages. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24(2), 191–217. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.24.2.191.62271.
Carlson, M., Charlin, V., & Miller, N. (1988). Positive mood and helping behavior: A test of six hypotheses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(2), 211–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.55.2.211.
Correia, I., Vala, J., & Aguiar, P. (2007). Victim’s innocence, social categorization, and the threat to the belief in a just world. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2005.12.010.
Dalbert, C., Lipkus, I. M., Sallay, H., & Goch, I. (2001). A just and an unjust world: Structure and validity of different world beliefs. Personality and Individual Differences, 30(4), 561–577. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00055-6.
De Caroli, M. E., & Sagone, E. (2014). Belief in a just world, prosocial behavior, and moral disengagement in adolescence. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 596–600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.263.
Fiedler, K., Harris, C., & Schott, M. (2018). Unwarranted inferences from statistical mediation tests–An analysis of articles published in 2015. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 75, 95–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.11.008.
Fiske, S. T. (2010). Social beings: Core motives in social psychology. New York: Wiley.
Furnham, A. F. (1995). The just world, charitable giving and attitudes to disability. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, 577–583. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(95)00090-S.
Furnham, A. F. (2003). Belief in a just world: Research progress over the past decade. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(5), 795–817. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00072-7.
Furnham, A. F., & Gunter, B. (1984). Just world beliefs and attitudes towards the poor. British Journal of Social Psychology, 23(3), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1984.tb00637.x.
Furrow, J. L., King, P. E., & White, K. (2004). Religion and positive youth development: Identity, meaning, and prosocial concerns. Applied Developmental Science, 8(1), 17–26. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532480XADS0801_3.
George, J. M. (1991). State or trait: Effects of positive mood on prosocial behaviors at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(2), 299–307. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.2.299.
Hafer, C. L. (2000). Do innocent victims threaten the belief in a just world? Evidence from a modified Stroop task. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(2), 165–173. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.2.165.
Hafer, C. L., & Bègue, L. (2005). Experimental research on just-world theory: Problems, developments, and future challenges. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 128–167. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.128.
Hafer, C. L., & Rubel, A. N. (2015a). Long-term focus and prosocial–antisocial tendencies interact to predict belief in just world. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 121–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.006.
Hafer, C. L., & Rubel, A. N. (2015b). The why and how of defending belief in a just world. In J. M. Olson & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 51, pp. 41–96). New York: Academic Press.
Hafer, C. L., & Sutton, R. (2016). Belief in a just world. In C. Sabbagh & M. Schmitt (Eds.), Handbook of social justice theory and research (pp. 145–160). Berlin: Springer.
Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Heine, S. J., Proulx, T., & Vohs, K. D. (2006). The meaning maintenance model: On the coherence of social motivations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(2), 88–110. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1002_1.
Heintzelman, S. J., & King, L. A. (2014). (The feeling of) meaning-as-information. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(2), 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868313518487.
Holmes, J. G., Miller, D. T., & Lerner, M. J. (2002). Committing altruism under the cloak of self-interest: The exchange fiction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(2), 144–151. https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.2001.1494.
Isen, A. M., & Levin, P. F. (1972). Effect of feeling good on helping: Cookies and kindness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 21(3), 384–388. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0032317.
Joireman, J., & Duell, B. (2005). Mother Teresa versus Ebenezer Scrooge: Mortality salience leads proselfs to endorse self-transcendent values (unless proselfs are reassured). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(3), 307–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167204271593.
Joireman, J., & Duell, B. (2007). Self-transcendent values moderate the impact of mortality salience on support for charities. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(4), 779–789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.02.003.
Jonas, E., Schimel, J., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (2002). The scrooge effect: Evidence that mortality salience increases prosocial attitudes and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(10), 1342–1353. https://doi.org/10.1177/014616702236834.
King, L. A., Hicks, J. A., Krull, J. L., & Del Gaiso, A. A. (2006). Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 179–196. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.1.179.
Klein, N. (2017). Prosocial behavior increases perceptions of meaning in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12, 354–361. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1209541.
Laurin, K., Fitzsimons, G. M., & Kay, A. C. (2011). Social disadvantage and the self-regulatory function of justice beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(1), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021343.
Lerner, M. J. (1970). The desire for justice and reactions to victims. In J. Macaulay & L. Berkowitz (Eds.), Altruism and helping behavior. New York: Academic Press.
Lerner, M. J. (1977). The justice motive: Some hypotheses as to its origins and forms1. Journal of Personality, 45(1), 1–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1977.tb00591.x.
Lerner, M. J. (1980). The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. Berlin: Springer.
Lerner, M. J. (2003). The justice motive: Where social psychologists found it, how they lost it, and why they may not find it again. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7(4), 388–399. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0704_10.
Lerner, M. J., & Miller, D. T. (1978). Just world research and the attribution process: Looking back and ahead. Psychological Bulletin, 85(5), 1030–1051. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.85.5.1030.
Lerner, M. J., & Simmons, C. H. (1966). Observer’s reaction to the “innocent victim”: Compassion or rejection? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(2), 203–210. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0023562.
Lipkusa, I. M., Dalbert, C., & Siegler, I. C. (1996). The importance of distinguishing the belief in a just world for self versus for others: Implications for psychological well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22(7), 666–677. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167296227002.
Lucas, T., Zhdanova, L., & Alexander, S. (2011). Procedural and distributive justice beliefs for self and others. Journal of Individual Differences, 32(1), 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000032.
Martela, F., & Ryan, R. M. (2016). Prosocial behavior increases well-being and vitality even without contact with the beneficiary: Causal and behavioral evidence. Motivation and Emotion, 40, 351–357. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-016-9552-z.
Miao, M., Zheng, L., & Gan, Y. (2017). Meaning in life promotes proactive coping via positive affect: A daily diary study. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18, 1683–1696. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9791-4.
Miller, D. T. (1977). Altruism and threat to a belief in a just world. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13(2), 113–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-1031(77)80004-8.
Montada, L. (1998). Belief in a just world: A hybrid of justice motive and self-interest? In L. Montada & M. J. Lerner (Eds.), Responses to victimizations and belief in a just world (pp. 217–246). New York: Plenum Press.
Ritter, C., Benson, D. E., & Synder, C. (1990). Belief in a just world and depression. Sociological Perspectives, 33(2), 235–252. https://doi.org/10.2307/1389045.
Rubin, Z., & Peplau, L. A. (1975). Who believes in a just world? Journal of Social Issues, 31(3), 65–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1975.tb00997.x.
Schoemann, A. M., Boulton, A. J., & Short, S. D. (2017). Determining power and sample size for simple and complex mediation models. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(4), 379–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617715068.
Shek, D. T. L., Ma, H. K., & Cheung, P. C. (1994). Meaning in life and adolescent antisocial and prosocial behavior in a Chinese context. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 37(4), 211–218.
Staub, E. (2003). The psychology of good and evil: Why children, adults and groups help and harm others. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Kaler, M., & Oishi, S. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53(1), 80–93. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.53.1.80.
Stroebe, K., Postmes, T., Täuber, S., Stegeman, A., & John, M.-S. (2015). Belief in a just what? Demystifying just world beliefs by distinguishing sources of justice. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120145.
Tavernier, R., & Willoughby, T. (2012). Adolescent turning points: The association between meaning-making and psychological well-being. Developmental Psychology, 48(4), 1058. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026326.
Tomaka, J., & Blascovich, J. (1994). Effects of justice beliefs on cognitive appraisal of and subjective, physiological, and behavioral responses to potential stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4), 732–740. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.4.732.
Trivers, R. (1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quarterly Review of Biology, 46(1), 35–57.
Trope, Y., Igou, E. R., & Burke, C. T. (2006). Mood as a resource in structuring goal pursuit. In J. P. Forgas (Ed.), Affect in social thinking and behavior (pp. 217–234). Hove: Psychology Press.
Van den Bos, K., & Bal, M. (2016). Social-cognitive and motivational processes underlying the justice motive. In C. Sabbagh & M. Schmitt (Eds.), Handbook of social justice theory and research (pp. 181–198). Berlin: Springer.
Van den Bos, K., & Maas, M. (2009). On the psychology of the belief in a just world: Exploring experiential and rationalistic paths to victim blaming. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35(12), 1567–1578. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209344628.
Van Tilburg, W. A. P., & Igou, E. R. (2013). On the meaningfulness of behavior: An expectancy x value approach. Motivation and Emotion, 37(3), 373–388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-012-9316-3.
Van Tilburg, W. A. P., & Igou, E. R. (2017). Can boredom help? Increased prosocial intentions in response to boredom. Self and Identity, 16(1), 82–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2016.1218925.
Van Tilburg, W. A. P., & Igou, E. R. (2019). Dreaming of a brighter future: Anticipating happiness instills meaning in life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(2), 541–559. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9960-8.
Van Tongeren, D. R., Green, J. D., Davis, D. E., Hook, J. N., & Hulsey, T. L. (2016). Prosociality enhances meaning in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(3), 225–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2015.1048814.
Vötter, B., & Schnell, T. (2019). Cross-lagged analyses between life meaning, self-compassion, and subjective well-being among gifted adults. Mindfulness, 10, 1294–1303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-1078-x.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063.
Wong, P. T. P. E. (2012). The human quest for meaning: Theories, research, and applications (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Zuckerman, M. (1975). Belief in a just world and altruistic behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(5), 972–976. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076793.
Zuckerman, M., & Gerbasi, K. C. (1977). Belief in a just world and trust. Journal of Research in Personality, 11(3), 306–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(77)90039-3.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. All authors consented to the submission of this manuscript.
Human and Animal Rights
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants followed the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All studies have been approved by the Education and Health Sciences Ethics Committee at the University of Limerick.
Ethical Approval
All procedures implemented standard ethics procedures reviewed by the EHS Ethics Committee at the University of Limerick. These procedures were consistent with the requirements of the American Psychological Association.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Igou, E.R., Blake, A.A. & Bless, H. Just-World Beliefs Increase Helping Intentions via Meaning and Affect. J Happiness Stud 22, 2235–2253 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00317-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-020-00317-6