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HRPYC81 PRO4 ASSIGNMENT 2 2026
DUE 5 MAY 2026
PERSONAL AND GENERAL BELIEF IN A JUST WORLD: A LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Conceptualising Belief in a Just World (BJW) as a Psychological Construct
The belief in a just world (BJW) is a cognitive bias or motivational assumption that the
world is fundamentally fair, such that people generally get what they deserve and
deserve what they get (Lerner, 1980). This concept, also known as the just‑world
hypothesis or just‑world fallacy, serves a crucial psychological function: it allows
individuals to perceive their environment as stable, predictable, and controllable,
thereby enabling long‑term goal pursuit and trust in future outcomes (Stroebe et al.,
2015). However, when confronted with evidence of injustice e.g., victimisation, poverty,
discrimination, BJW can be threatened, leading people to restore justice either by
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