Research On The Impact Of Fair World Beliefs On Intertemporal Choices

Intertemporal choices (IC) refers to the decision maker to make a trade-off between costs and benefits at the different time points. In recent years, the preference of intertemporal has attract our more and more attention. The belief in a just world(sometimes referred to as "the faith" or "BJW") is a concept proposed by Lerner that"individuals have such a need to believe that they live in the world is fair, people deserve what they deserve." This belief makes people believe that the world is orderly,the results can be predicted, only in this context,people will have confidence in the future, will pursue long-term goals, and will believe that they will eventually get what they deserve. In the intertemporal choice, do individuals with different levels of belief in the world have different preferences? Therefore, the present study focuses on the influence of the belief in a just world on intertemporal choice,and adds the variable of time delay and contexts to make a more concrete and objective analysis.This study is divided into three parts, in the first research based on 650 subjects questionnaire method was applied to investigate the relationship between the belief in a just world and intertemporal choices. In the second research based on 100 subjects 3(BJW: threat/certain/control)×5(time delay: 7days/30days/90days/180days/365days)mixed expermental design was applied to investigate how BJW to influence IC in gain situation. Last but not least, in the third research, 96 subjects were separated randomly into three groups,3(BJW: threat/certain/control)×5(time delay:7days/30days/90days/180days/365days) mixed expermental design was applied to investigate how BJW to influence IC in loss situation.Results were made following:(1) Correlational studies show that, BJW is significant positive correlation and IC, the more they subsequently chose larger-later rewards the stronger their chronic BJW.(2) In gain situation, valence had significantly effect on BJW operation,subjects who their BJW was under threat their preferences for smaller,immediate monetary rewards versus a constant, larger, delayed rewards. But certainly BJW groups tend to larger,delayed rewards; a significant main effect of delay time,with the increase of the delay time, subjects have greater preference for immediate options;the two factors didn’t have an interaction effect.(3 )In loss situation, valence had no effect on BJW operation, but time delay did.Besides,the two factors didn’t have an interaction effect.Conclusions:(1) Individuals with different levels of BJW have different intertemporal choice preferences, while individuals with a high level of belief in a just world tend to choose larger, delayed rewards.(2) The BJW influence on IC in different situations: separation in benefit situation, the individual BJW get certainly prefer larger, delayed rewards, and when the individual’s BJW is threatened prefer smaller, immediate monetary rewards. In the context of loss, the influence of BJW on intertemporal choice is not significant.(3) The influence of delay time on intertemporal choice effect similar in different situations: with the increase of delay time, the individual whether for profit or loss, are not willing to spend more time to wait, but towards the present profit or loss.