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Looking ahead through lenses of justice: The relevance of just‐world beliefs to intentions and confidence in the future
Author(s) -
Sutton Robbie M.,
Winnard Elizabeth J.
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.1348/014466606x166220
Subject(s) - just world hypothesis , psychology , social psychology , life satisfaction , economic justice , accommodation , relevance (law) , neoclassical economics , neuroscience , political science , law , economics
Recent research distinguishes the belief in a just‐world for the self (BJW‐self) from that for others (BJW‐others), showing BJW‐self to be associated with subjective well‐being and BJW‐others to be associated with harsh social attitudes. The present research examines the implications of these two types of just‐world belief for aspects of motivation and ideation about the future. A sample of 100 young British adults living in assisted accommodation completed measures of BJW‐self, BJW‐others, life satisfaction and intention to engage in delinquent behaviour. They also listed their personal goals and indicated their confidence that they would attain them. In partial correlation and hierarchical regression analyses, BJW‐self predicted confidence in the realization of goals, but was inversely related to delinquent intentions. In contrast, BJW‐others was directly related to delinquent intentions but inversely related to confidence in achieving socially legitimate personal goals. These results were not attributable to variations in life satisfaction or in the achievability of participants' goals.