Just-World Hypothesis
The just-world hypothesis is the bias that the world is fundamentally fair, so people get what they deserve and deserve what they get.
Why do people cling to fairness?
Believing the world is just protects us from the threatening thought that misfortune is largely random and could hit us regardless of virtue. It’s a defense against existential anxiety.
- Leads directly to victim-blaming: if something bad happened, the victim must have caused it
Examples
- “She was assaulted because of what she was wearing”
- “Poor people are poor because they’re lazy”
- “If he got cancer at 40, he must have had bad habits”
Counters
- Notice when an explanation requires the victim to be at fault
- Look for structural, random, or causal explanations that don’t require moral desert
- Separate understanding causes from assigning blame