The Belief in a Just World and Domestic Abuse

One of my very good friends was in an abusive relationship about six months ago.  When she was upset or after they got in a fight, she would come over to vent about everything her boyfriend had done.  He often was verbally and emotionally abusive and manipulative; occasionally, he was physically threatening.  Unfortunately, my friend also lived with this boyfriend.  Due to economic restraints, she did not have enough money to move out.

While she was venting, I would always tell her that she could just move in with me instead.  She always said, “Maybe, if it gets bad enough.”  I was constantly worried about her, but I continued to think that she was (somewhat) accountable for her situation.  I always thought along the lines of, “If she only moved in with me, this would stop happening because she could finally break up with him,” or “If she just would work more hours, she would (1) have more money to move out sooner and (2) stay at home less, and thus, give her boyfriend fewer chances to hurt her,” or “If she had not just bought a plane ticket to visit her mom, she would have had enough money to move out!”

 Although I was not directly blaming my friend, I still thought that her behavior was leading to the consequences, rather than explaining the situation using her boyfriend’s behavior (which is where the blame should fall).  The act of blaming victims is also known as a defensive attribution, or the belief in a just world (Lerner, 1980).  In other words, we believe that good things happen to good people, and that bad things happen to bad people.  In short, “What goes around comes around.”

We use defensive attributions to protect ourselves from the idea that something bad can happen to us (Lerner, 1980).  Because, in general, most people think that they are good people, or at least better than average (Brown, 2012), they believe that they will “get what they deserve,” which are primarily good things and fewer bad things (if they think that they are good people; Lerner, 1980). 

In my example, I was using the belief in a just world to protect myself from the idea that something terrible, like domestic abuse, could happen to me.  Instead of blaming my friend’s boyfriend (like I should have), I blamed her inability to move out and her failure to make and save more money (even though her money situation was mostly out of her control).  Thus, I distanced (and protected) myself from the fact that her situation is a very real possibility for me, especially given that, on average, one in four women are victims of domestic abuse at some time in their life (CDC, 2008).

Luckily my friend is no longer in that relationship.  Nevertheless, the belief in a just world can have significant consequences, particularly for victims of domestic abuse and other acts of violence against women.  Imagine that my friend charged her boyfriend with sexual abuse (which he occasionally did); if the jurors found blame with my friend’s actions, instead of her boyfriend’s (as I did), he may have been found not guilty or served a lesser sentence.  In fact, past work supports that belief in a just world influences mock jurors’ decisions on damages awarded to the plaintiff (Foley & Pigott, 2000).  All in all, we should be careful of being biased by the just world hypothesis; although it can help us to defend ourselves, it can also lead to us making incorrect inferences about an individual. (n= 592)

References

Brown, J. D. (2012). Understanding the better-than-average effect: Motives (still matter). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(2), 209-219. doi: 10.1177/0146167211432763

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012).  Adverse health conditions and health risk behaviors associated with intimate partner violence.  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 57(5), 113-117. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/wk/mm5705.pdf

Foley, L. A., & Pigott, M. A. (2000). Belief in a just world and jury decisions in a civil rape trial. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30(5), 935-951. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2000.tb02504.x

Lerner, M. J. (1980). The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York: Plenum. 

Note: If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse or sexual assault, please get help! You can find additional resources by clicking here and here.