Belief in a Just World. A systematic review

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2022 in the subject Psychology - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,7, University of Hagen (Lehrgebiet Community Psychology), course: Community Psychology, language: English, abstract: Just World Belief (JWB) is a cognitive belief of people that assumes that actions have morally just and appropriate consequences for the actor. This theory has been widely researched in the literature, with a focus on negative social effects and positive psychological effects. In particular, the subjective experience of justice seems to be relevant, since experienced in-justice can have devastating consequences on an individual level (depression, aggression, et cetera) as well as on a group or societal level (conflicts, protests, et cetera). Accordingly, JWB theory is an interesting approach to the study and explanation of social behaviour in groups and societies. Presented here is a systematic literature review of current studies on the causes and effects of JWB in order to identify the current state of scientific knowledge and relevant trends, and to uncover potential interesting avenues of inquiry for the future. To this end, following a brief presentation of the theoretical background, a systematic literature review and analysis will be conducted and its results presented and discussed.