Is it Desirable or Useful to Believe in a Just World?

Résumé

Recent studies have lately highlighted the normative character of the belief in a just world. Conferring an object the status of a social norm means assigning value (in terms of desirability and utility) to that object. So we questioned the value assigned to the belief in a just world. 170 employees were therefore interrogated on the desirability and utility they would attribute to a future work colleague (future peer or subordinate) based on the responses the latter was supposed to have given to a questionnaire on the belief in a just world. It turns out that believers in a just world are almost always preferred to non-believers, both in terms of desirability, as well as utility, regardless of their future status (peer vs. subordinate). This result thus confirms the normativity of the belief in a just world.