Trauma and Just world Belief

Lerner (1977, 1980) proposed that individuals need to believe in a just world to deal with witnessed or experienced injustice, helplessness, and insecurity. The just-world theory (Lerner, 1980) assumes that people want to believe that they live in a world where good things happen to good people and bad things only to bad ones and where therefore everyone harvests what they sow. You might have heard these in your daily routine- “You reap what you sow” or “What goes around comes around” .

LET’S TAP A BIT MORE INTO WHAT EXACTLY IS A JUST WORLD HYPOTHESIS-

The essence of Just world hypothesis for Dr. Melvin J. Learner is a ‘Fundamental Delusion’ People need this Belief in a Just World to set goals for themselves that they can strive for Without the Belief in a Just World there would be no use in setting goals because if the world is unjust what’s the point of setting goals when you know that it would be uncertain that they would ever be reached. Thus Just world belief provides a buffer zone to people to avoid or supress the harsh realities of world as well control over one’s personal destiny.

Since, the belief that the world is just serves an important adaptive function for the individual,
people are very reluctant to give up this belief, and they easily get troubled when they encounter
evidence against to it that world after all in not a Just place.

Trauma and Just world Belief-

Just world belief literally clips the feathers of people who have gone through trauma, neglect, or invalidation. When bad things happen to good people, we are likely to experience feelings of inconsistency which typically result in unease or distress.

• Victim Blaming-

When people hear the story of victim which Challenges their ‘Just world belief’ they start blaming the victim for the traumatic event as if they were responsible for the Traumatic event. Defaming the victim works to keep their Just world belief intact.

For e.g.- X, 10yr old shares her story of Sexual abuse by her relative with her mother. She went to her with courage which she could finally gather after 2 years. The response she got was ‘This happens with everyone, and she was blamed for what happened with her.’ There was character assassination and her whole family turned against her.

• In the clutches of Past-

People who have been groomed with JWB and have gone through traumatic experiences it becomes a task for them to finally acknowledge the fact that the IDEAL IMAGE of the world which others created for them is a FALSE IMAGE. World can be an unjust place.  Some are still living their lives in the ‘Revenge mode’ because they want to undo their traumatic past which becomes a major obstacle in their healing journey. Some may have made an understanding that world is truly an unjust place but still are not able to loose the chains of years of Believing that ‘Good happens to good and Bad happens to Bad’.