When deserving translates into causing: The effect of cognitive load on immanent justice reasoning

Callan, Mitchell J.; Sutton, Robbie M.; Dovale, Cristina

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.024

Cited by 51 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Shown in Table 1, participants who were presented with a “bad” victim rated him as more deserving of his random bad outcome than participants who read about a “good” victim, conceptually replicating previous research [11], [35]. Also, participants who were presented with a “good” victim saw him as more deserving of later fulfillment than a “bad” victim.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

Getting “Just Deserts” or Seeing the “Silver Lining”: The Relation between Judgments of Immanent and Ultimate Justice

Harvey

Callan

2014

PLoS ONE

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People can perceive misfortunes as caused by previous bad deeds (immanent justice reasoning) or resulting in ultimate compensation (ultimate justice reasoning). Across two studies, we investigated the relation between these types of justice reasoning and identified the processes (perceptions of deservingness) that underlie them for both others (Study 1) and the self (Study 2). Study 1 demonstrated that observers engaged in more ultimate (vs. immanent) justice reasoning for a “good” victim and greater immanent (vs. ultimate) justice reasoning for a “bad” victim. In Study 2, participants' construals of their bad breaks varied as a function of their self-worth, with greater ultimate (immanent) justice reasoning for participants with higher (lower) self-esteem. Across both studies, perceived deservingness of bad breaks or perceived deservingness of ultimate compensation mediated immanent and ultimate justice reasoning respectively.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

Getting “Just Deserts” or Seeing the “Silver Lining”: The Relation between Judgments of Immanent and Ultimate Justice

Harvey

Callan

2014

PLoS ONE

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“…This analysis is consistent with research showing that people are highly sensitive to the value of others when determining the fairness, deservingness, or appropriateness of their outcomes (e.g., Callan, Ellard, & Nicol, 2006;Callan, Kay, Davidenko, & Ellard, 2009;Ellard & Bates, 1990;Lerner, 1965;Rice & Trafimow, 2011). For example, Callan, Sutton, and Dovale (2010) found that participants rated a man who cheated on his wife (bad person) as more deserving of being in a car accident (bad outcome) than a man who did not cheat on his wife (good person). This analysis is also consistent with research showing that people perceive the suffering of devalued (vs. valued) individuals and groups as less unfair (e.g., Callan, Powell, & Ellard, 2007;Correia, Vala, & Aguiar, 2007;Lerner & Agar, 1972).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Justice motive effects in ageism: The effects of a victim's age on observer perceptions of injustice and punishment judgments

Callan

Dawtry

Olson

2012

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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“…BJW threat may also induce cognitive load, which has been suggested to have the same effects as ego-depletion (see, e.g. Vosgerau, Bruyneel, Dhar, Wertenbroch, 2008) and has been shown to facilitate irrational justice-related reactions as well (Callan, Sutton, & Dovale, 2010). However, cognitive load cannot replace our line of reasoning on self-regulation, at is provides no equivalence to self-affirmation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

A Self-Regulation Hypothesis of Coping with an Unjust World: Ego-Depletion and Self-Affirmation as Underlying Aspects of Blaming of Innocent Victims

Loseman

Bos

2012

Soc Just Res

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People have a need to Belief in a Just World (BJW) in which people get what they deserve. When people are confronted with an event which threatens this BJW (e.g. when they witness a girl falling victim to rape), people try to maintain their existing beliefs, for example, by blaming the innocent victim for her ill fate. We argue that this defensive process of blaming innocent victims in essence stems from self-regulatory failure. In accordance with this line of reasoning, our first experiment shows that when self-regulatory resources were depleted (i.e. in the case of high ego-depletion) before BJW threatening information describing an innocent victim of a rape crime, the effect of BJW threat on victim blaming amplified. Study 2 shows that when self-regulation was facilitated by means of self-affirmation after the BJW threatening information, the effect of BJW threat on victim blaming vanished. Taken together, our findings suggest that coping with BJW threats involve self-regulatory processes leading to more or less defensive reactions (like blaming innocent victims). When people's self-regulatory resources are depleted, they react more negatively to innocent victims when they constitute a stronger threat to the BJW. Facilitating self-regulation, by means of self-affirmation, enables people to cope with BJW threatening information, thereby inhibiting the urge to blame innocent victims.

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When deserving translates into causing: The effect of cognitive load on immanent justice reasoning

Cited by 51 publications

References 20 publications

Getting “Just Deserts” or Seeing the “Silver Lining”: The Relation between Judgments of Immanent and Ultimate Justice

Getting “Just Deserts” or Seeing the “Silver Lining”: The Relation between Judgments of Immanent and Ultimate Justice

Justice motive effects in ageism: The effects of a victim's age on observer perceptions of injustice and punishment judgments

A Self-Regulation Hypothesis of Coping with an Unjust World: Ego-Depletion and Self-Affirmation as Underlying Aspects of Blaming of Innocent Victims

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