Individual And Social Functions Of Belief In A Just World For Different Social Classes

Nowadays, the widening income gap between the rich and poor and solidified tendency of social classes has become a hot-button issue in Chinese society. The research of belief in a just world can give some important practical implications for administers to monitor and alleviate public perception of injustice effectively, cultivate rational and calm national mentality, and maintain social stability.This paper tried to study the structures and functions of belief in a just world from two related perspective, the perspective of individual difference and from the perspective of social mentality systematically through the following5concrete studies.Study1proposed a two-dimensional and four-factor construct integrating the self-other differences with now-future differences, developed the scale of belief in a just world, and examined the psychometrics and validity of the proposed construct, with a sample of854urban and rural residents. The scale of belief in a just world included15items and involved4factors, which were named present justice beliefs for self, future justice beliefs for self, present justice beliefs for others, future justice beliefs for others. The scale had good coefficient of internal consistency and retest reliability, and acceptable construct and content validity. Therefore, it is suitable to be applied to measure the belief in a just world of different social classes. Study2collected data from664residents, using subject well-being, the sense of control and hope as index of mental health, explored the impacts of social class on residents’ mental health variables and the mediating effects of belief in a just world. Results revealed that, mental health and belief in a just world of higher subjective social class individuals was better than lower subjective social class individuals significantly. But objective social class was not stably and consistently associated with individual’s mental health. And belief in a just world could partially mediate the relationship between subjective social class and mental health. Overall, research findings were very much in line with the personal resource hypothesis and do not support the psychological buffer hypothesis.Study3, with75undergraduate students from low class families, in the face of poor performance on an intelligence test which was experimentally manipulated, to examine the effect of students’ belief in a just world on their pursuits of long-term goals, and meanwhile their delay discounting of immediate gratifications. Consistent with our reasoning, low class participants who believed more strongly in a just world reported more willingness to invest time and effort to their long-term goals, and less steeply discounted the value of the delayed reward—that is, they were willing to accept the larger, delayed reward in place of smaller immediate rewards.The results of the above-mentioned2studies showed that, belief in a just world serves at least two primarily adaptive functions at the individual level, positively impact well-being and mental health for all social classes, and promote pursuits of long-term goals for lower social classes. Study4and study5regarded the belief in a just world as a system-justifying ideology, explored the influence of belief in a just world on perception of distributive justice and status stereotypes.Study4investigated1207individuals from different social classes, examined the effect of belief in a just world on perception of distributive justice. The results indicated that, individuals in our samples have relatively low levels of subjective social class, and simultaneously low levels of perception of distributive justice, but lower subjective social class individuals tended to have lower levels of perception of distributive justice comparing with higher subjective social class individuals, and belief in a just world could moderate the relationship between subjective social status and perception of distributive justice.Study5, with120typical high class individuals and101typical low class individuals as its participants, examined the effect of belief of just world on status stereotypes. Participants were required to write at least three kinds of group which they thought was typical high class and typical low class. The results showed that typical high classes were regarded as more competent, less friendly, and less honest than typical low classes, and participants high in belief in a just world were more likely than those low in BJW to view typical high classes as more competent, more friendly, and more honest. In short those high in belief in a just world have generally positive attitudes towards high classes.To sum up, the above-mentioned5studies focused on the structures and functions of belief in a just world for different social classes, and results showed that for lower social classes, belief in a just world is a double-edged sword.