Adil Dünya İnancı ve Toplumsal Sonuçları

Lerner’in Adil Dünya İnancı Kuramına göre (1975) insanlar herkesin genellikle hak ettiğini elde ettiği, iyilerin ödüllendirilip kötülerin cezalandırıldığı adil bir dünyada yaşadığına inanma ihtiyacındadır. Lerner adil dünya inancının bir yanılsama olduğunu, gerçekte dünyanın çok adil olmadığını ancak bu inancın kişinin kendini güvende hissetmesi için önemli olduğunu vurgulamıştır. Bu inanç bireylerin sosyal ve fiziksel çevrelerini adil, yordanabilir ve konrol edilebilir görmelerini kolaylaştırır. Böylece geleceğe güvenle bakabilir ve uzun vadeli amaçlarına ulaşmak için çabalayabilirler. Kurama göre masum kurbanlar insanların adil dünya inancını tehdit eder. Bu tehditle baş edebilmek ve bu inancı koruyabilmek için kurbana yardım etme gibi akılcı yolların yanı sıra kurbanı suçlama ya da değersizleştirme gibi bilişsel çarpıtmalar da kullanılabilmektedir. Kurbanı suçlamanın toplumsal sonuçları son derece ciddi görünmektedir. Bu derleme çalışmasında Lerner tarafından geliştirilen Adil Dünya İnancı Kuramının temel önermeleri ve bu önermeleri test eden görgül araştırma bulguları sunulmuştur. Adil dünya inancını korumak uğruna kurbanı suçlamanın ya da değersizleştirmenin toplumsal sonuçları tartışılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Adil Dünya İnancı, Yardım etme, Kurbanı suçlama

Belief in a Just World and Its Social Consequences

According to the belief in a just world theory, developed by Lerner (1975), people need to believe that they live in a just world where everyone lives what they deserve, good persons are rewarded while bad persons are punished. Lerner stated that belief in a just world is an illusion infact the world is not always fair, however, just world belief plays an important role in feeling secure. This belief leads to individuals to perceive their social and physical environment as fair, predictable, and controllable. Thus they look to the future with confidence and they can strive to reach their long-term goals. According to the theory, innocent victims threaten people’s belief in a just world, to cope with this threat and to maintain their beliefs people use cognitive distortions such as blaming or derogating the victim alongside the rational strategies such as helping to the victim. Blaming the innocent victims has severe consequences not only for victims but also for the whole society. In this review main propositions of Lerner’s belief in a just world theory and the results of the empirical studies testing these propositions were presented. Then the social consequences of blaming or derogating innocent victims in order to protect the just world belief were discussed.

Keywords:

Belief in a Just World, Helping behavior, Victim Blaming,

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