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The World is More Just for Me than Generally: About the Personal Belief in a Just World Scale's Validity

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Abstract

Differences between personal and general belief in a just world were studied in four questionnaire studies and one experiment. Personal just world belief could reliably be differentiated from general just world belief, and subjects endorsed more strongly the personal compared to the general just world belief. Moreover, personal belief in a just world predicted subjective well-being and self-esteem, and this positive impact was independent of general just world belief and favorable self-perceptions. Finally, the more subjects were aware of their own unfairness, the more the personal belief in a just world showed a negative impact on self-esteem. Results give evidence to the just world beliefs' character as world views and as indicators of a personal contract between individual and social world.

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  1. Department of Educational Psychology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, D-06099, Halle (Saale); phone:

    Claudia Dalbert

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  1. Claudia Dalbert
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Dalbert, C. The World is More Just for Me than Generally: About the Personal Belief in a Just World Scale's Validity. Social Justice Research 12, 79–98 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022091609047

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