In a violent world a just world makes sense: the case of "senseless violence" in The Netherlands.
In a violent world a just world makes sense: the case of "senseless violence" in The Netherlands.
Recent violent incidents in The Netherlands caused nationwide debates about their purported senselessness. Building on Lerner's Just World Theory (Lerner, 1980, The Belief in a Just World. A Fundamental Delusion, Plenum Press, New York), the present experiment sought to delineate the circumstances under which violence is perceived as senseless by outside observers. Participants were more likely to perceive an act of violence as senseless and to identify with the victim when there was no opportunity to blame the victim and when the victim was uninvolved with the perpetrator. These findings suggest that acts of violence are perceived as senseless when attributional strategies fail to uphold observers' belief in a just world
justice, aggression, violence, identification
79-94
Lodewijkx, H.F.M.
437dea32-8448-410a-b7af-3c1b161d8cca
Wildschut, T.
4452a61d-1649-4c4a-bb1d-154ec446ff81
Savenije, W.
0135414f-c323-4675-bd71-b95b1525efc6
Smit, M.
da5f9099-9068-4719-93f6-dc272a5d4771
Nijstad, B.
d3604edb-9a05-4976-8432-ad76e9d37f42
2001
Lodewijkx, H.F.M.
437dea32-8448-410a-b7af-3c1b161d8cca
Wildschut, T.
4452a61d-1649-4c4a-bb1d-154ec446ff81
Savenije, W.
0135414f-c323-4675-bd71-b95b1525efc6
Smit, M.
da5f9099-9068-4719-93f6-dc272a5d4771
Nijstad, B.
d3604edb-9a05-4976-8432-ad76e9d37f42
Lodewijkx, H.F.M., Wildschut, T., Savenije, W., Smit, M. and Nijstad, B.
(2001)
In a violent world a just world makes sense: the case of "senseless violence" in The Netherlands.
Social Justice Research, 14 (1), .
Abstract
Recent violent incidents in The Netherlands caused nationwide debates about their purported senselessness. Building on Lerner's Just World Theory (Lerner, 1980, The Belief in a Just World. A Fundamental Delusion, Plenum Press, New York), the present experiment sought to delineate the circumstances under which violence is perceived as senseless by outside observers. Participants were more likely to perceive an act of violence as senseless and to identify with the victim when there was no opportunity to blame the victim and when the victim was uninvolved with the perpetrator. These findings suggest that acts of violence are perceived as senseless when attributional strategies fail to uphold observers' belief in a just world
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Published date: 2001
Keywords:
justice, aggression, violence, identification
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Local EPrints ID: 40208
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/40208
PURE UUID: 76704c8d-a8db-404c-95c6-57ed5be3b94e
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2006
Last modified: 09 Feb 2024 02:36
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Contributors
Author:
H.F.M. Lodewijkx
Author:
W. Savenije
Author:
M. Smit
Author:
B. Nijstad
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