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## We Believe People Get What They Deserve Melvin Lerner (1929-) ### In Context **Approach:** Attribution theory **Before** * **1958:** Austrian psychologist Fritz Heider investigates the attribution process; how people judge the factors that influence a situation. * **1965:** American psycholo...

## We Believe People Get What They Deserve Melvin Lerner (1929-) ### In Context **Approach:** Attribution theory **Before** * **1958:** Austrian psychologist Fritz Heider investigates the attribution process; how people judge the factors that influence a situation. * **1965:** American psychologists Edward E. Jones and Keith Davis argue that the goal of attribution is to discover how behaviour and intention reveal a person's basic nature. **After** * **1971:** US sociologist William J. Ryan coins the phrase "victim blaming", exposing how it is used to justify racism and social injustice. * **1975:** American psychologists Zick Rubin and Letitia Peplau find that firm believers in a "Just World" tend to be more authoritarian, more religious, and more admiring of existing social and political institutions. ### The Just-World Hypothesis People want to believe that they live in a safe, stable, and orderly world and operate under the assumption that "people get what they deserve" and deserve what they get. This belief, that people get what they deserve, is a dangerous misconception. Here's why: * People are most comfortable when they have a sense of control over their lives. * We need to believe that we live in a world where the good are rewarded and the bad are punished. * This contributes significantly to our sense that it is possible to predict, guide, and ultimately control events. * The Just-World hypothesis is a tendency to believe that "people get what they deserve." However, placing undue importance on the supposed character traits of the people involved - rather than on the actual facts in a situation - can lead to harmful consequences. If someone is suffering or being punished, we find it easier to believe that that person must have done something to deserve such treatment. The Just-World theory becomes a comforting rationalization of seemingly inexplicable events and stops the world from appearing chaotic or random. It also allows people to believe that as long as "bad" things only happen to "bad" people, and only "good" things happen to "good" people, they will be safe. People blame the victims of misfortune in order to protect themselves from feeling vulnerable.