{"title":"The Relationship Between Belief in a Just World and Antisocial Behavior Through Anticipated Guilt, Victim Deservedness, and Punishment Frame.","authors":"Gözde Kiral Ucar, Alex O'Neill, Robbie M Sutton","doi":"10.1177/08862605241299441","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>According to the just world hypothesis, people need to believe that they deserve what they get and get what they deserve. This belief in a just world (BJW) seems to be related to antisocial behavior. However, the mechanisms that underlie this relationship have not been fully explored. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between BJW for others (BJW-Other; the belief that people, other than themselves, get what they deserve) and BJW for the self (BJW-Self; the belief that people feel they get what they deserve) with intentions to commit everyday crimes, victim deservedness, and anticipated guilt. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 364 undergraduate students (79.1% female, 18.7% male, 2.2% diverse) aged between 19 and 54 (<i>M</i> = 19.87; <i>SD</i> = 3.02) (Study 1). It was replicated in a further study that also measured perceptions of everyday crime as just punishment of its victims (e.g., for their privilege or complacency) in a sample of 302 (57.6% female, 41.4% male, and 1% diverse) non-university students aged between 20 and 99 (<i>M</i> = 41.76; <i>SD</i> = 13.12) (Study 2). In both studies, results indicated that the negative relationship between BJW-Self and intentions to commit everyday crimes was mediated by increased anticipated guilt. The more the participants in both samples endorsed BJW-Self the more they felt anticipated guilt, and in turn, the less they intended to offend. The results suggest that BJW-Self may play a role in fostering anticipated guilt and in turn deterring them from committing everyday crimes.</p>","PeriodicalId":16289,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Interpersonal Violence","volume":" ","pages":"8862605241299441"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Interpersonal Violence","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605241299441","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
According to the just world hypothesis, people need to believe that they deserve what they get and get what they deserve. This belief in a just world (BJW) seems to be related to antisocial behavior. However, the mechanisms that underlie this relationship have not been fully explored. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between BJW for others (BJW-Other; the belief that people, other than themselves, get what they deserve) and BJW for the self (BJW-Self; the belief that people feel they get what they deserve) with intentions to commit everyday crimes, victim deservedness, and anticipated guilt. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 364 undergraduate students (79.1% female, 18.7% male, 2.2% diverse) aged between 19 and 54 (M = 19.87; SD = 3.02) (Study 1). It was replicated in a further study that also measured perceptions of everyday crime as just punishment of its victims (e.g., for their privilege or complacency) in a sample of 302 (57.6% female, 41.4% male, and 1% diverse) non-university students aged between 20 and 99 (M = 41.76; SD = 13.12) (Study 2). In both studies, results indicated that the negative relationship between BJW-Self and intentions to commit everyday crimes was mediated by increased anticipated guilt. The more the participants in both samples endorsed BJW-Self the more they felt anticipated guilt, and in turn, the less they intended to offend. The results suggest that BJW-Self may play a role in fostering anticipated guilt and in turn deterring them from committing everyday crimes.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Interpersonal Violence is devoted to the study and treatment of victims and perpetrators of interpersonal violence. It provides a forum of discussion of the concerns and activities of professionals and researchers working in domestic violence, child sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, physical child abuse, and violent crime. With its dual focus on victims and victimizers, the journal will publish material that addresses the causes, effects, treatment, and prevention of all types of violence. JIV only publishes reports on individual studies in which the scientific method is applied to the study of some aspect of interpersonal violence. Research may use qualitative or quantitative methods. JIV does not publish reviews of research, individual case studies, or the conceptual analysis of some aspect of interpersonal violence. Outcome data for program or intervention evaluations must include a comparison or control group.