Theories Of Justice Reasoning

Many theories have been put forward in the field of psychology which attempt to explain the reactions of people in society towards what they would classify as injustice.one of these approaches was put forward by Lerner (1980) which is known as the ‘belief in a just world’ theory. This states that in life it is believed that everyone gets what they deserve good people receive good things and vice versa. This allows society to conduct itself in a stable manner as this notion brings forth a certain amount of stability. When occurrences happen that seem to dispute this concept individuals in society have a variety of reactions with the intention of reconciling their beliefs such as victim blaming and derogation, ultimate justice reasoning
More recent studies even show that irrespective of whether the victim’s lives had benefitted or not member of society where still driven to believe that they did ‘in order to preserve their beliefs in the fairness of the world’.(Anderson 2010)

Secondly, a more negative reaction to injustice is known as imminent justice reasoning. In this reaction members of society decide that a person’s prior deeds or moral character lead to them deserving any outcomes they receive, regardless of the fact that a causal link is in fact impossible. Rather than accept the fact that we are subject to random acts that happen to us in order to retain some sense of order and control people engage in a karma like process

Furthermore, another reaction to injustice is known as victim blame, this is when observers of the victims suffering attempt to place the blame of said suffering on the actions of the victims themselves claiming that they ‘brought it upon themselves’ an example of this could be a woman being attacked whilst walking home after a
Pancer, McMullen, Kabatoff, Johnson, &
Pond (1979) conducted a study which displayed this type of avoidance in society, in this study they placed a table in the hallway of a university at one point the table was set up as a donation centre and at another point it was left bare what was recorded was that individuals tended to maintain a greater distance from the donations table.
The presence of innocent victims is a threat to the just world theory therefore strong believers seem to completely ignore the presence of anything contradictory.

In conclusion, there are a number of reactions to the injustice that threatens the just world theory that some members of society hold some are positive such as ultimate justice reasoning, while the majority seem to display a negative standpoint for example imminent justice reasoning, it could however be argued that none of these reactions do much in the way of truly reconciling the just world notion with