Just-world Hypothesis

Imagine that it’s a Friday evening and you and your friends are leaving your favorite restaurant. Spirits are high as you walk back to the side street where you parked your cars. Your friend Paul’s lively demeanor quickly changes as his car comes into view with the passenger door wide open. He runs to assess the damage, finding that his car radio and laptop have been stolen. You console Paul and ask how this could have happened, and he says he has no idea. You continue to comfort your friend, but you can’t help but feel that he must have left his doors unlocked and laptop in plain sight. You start to think about how Paul is always so absent-minded and maybe needed a bit of a wake-up call.

Here, we can see how the just-world hypothesis can shape our perceptions of events in our daily lives. You assume that what goes around comes around, and thus rationalize Paul’s misfortune as a consequence of his negative actions or characteristics. You even distort your perception of Paul to find a reason that he was robbed instead of you.

The just-world hypothesis leads people to rationalize unfair outcomes, even when external factors, like high crime rates in the area, play a role. This cognitive bias helps people feel safe because we like to be able to attribute causes to events. But at the same time, it often ignores the complexity of real-world injustice.