Tried With Fire

Nearly a year ago, I wrote a post on the Just World Phenomena and its relation to victim blaming. In the light of the Abedini situation and other cases of abuse that have come to light, this theory is worth revisiting. In a nutshell, we assume the world is a just system that runs according to a set of rules. Therefore if we follow the rules correctly, we will achieve the desired outcome and get what we deserve. But what happens when the system fails? How do we respond when we witness injustice and in particular, when we witness people getting what they do  not deserve? 1 According to this theory. injustice causes the victim to suffer. But it also causes a sense of suffering in the viewer. To alleviate our discomfort, we can go to the aid of the victim or we can revise our opinion of the victim to maintain our belief that the world is "just." 2  If condition A prevents consequence B, but B happened to the victim, then she did not follow the rules. She brought it on hers...

What is the just-world phenomena? Basically human beings believe or want to believe the world is just. Therefore, when something inexplicable happens to someone, we try to explain the event in a way that reconciles it with our understanding of the world. It may result in aid for and defense of the victim, but often this results in our perceiving the victim as having done something to deserve the suffering. Dr. Melvin J. Lerner , the psychologist who coined the phrase, describes it like this: A Just World is one in which people "get what they deserve." The judgment of "deserving" is based on the outcome that someone is entitled to receive. A Person "P" deserves outcome "X" if P has met the appropriate preconditions for obtaining X. What is implied, also, is that P desires X. If P does not get X, or receives something of less value than X, then P has not received all he or she deserves. Of course, the outcomes in question can be negative rat...