Premium
Through the looking glass: Focusing on long‐term goals increases immanent justice reasoning
Author(s) -
Callan Mitchell J.,
Harvey Annelie J.,
Dawtry Rael J.,
Sutton Robbie M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12022
Subject(s) - economic justice , psychology , social psychology , function (biology) , term (time) , accident (philosophy) , causal reasoning , epistemology , cognition , law , political science , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , evolutionary biology , neuroscience , biology
Immanent justice reasoning involves causally attributing a negative event to someone's prior moral failings, even when such a causal connection is physically implausible. This study examined the degree to which immanent justice represents a form of motivated reasoning in the service of satisfying the need to believe in a just world. Drawing on a manipulation that has been shown to activate justice motivation , participants causally attributed a freak accident to a man's prior immoral (vs. moral) behaviour to a greater extent when they first focused on their long‐term (vs. short‐term) goals. These findings highlight the important function believing in a just world plays in self‐regulatory processes by implicating the self in immanent justice reasoning about fluke events in the lives of others.