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The effects of justice motivation on memory for self- and other-relevant events |
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| Authors: | Mitchell J Callan Aaron C Kay John H Ellard |
| Institution: | a Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada N6A 5C2 b Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1 c Psychology Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94107, United States d Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4 |
| Abstract: | We examined whether people might distort and selectively remember the past in ways that enable them to sustain a belief in a just world (BJW; Lerner, M. J. (1980). The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York: Plenum Press). In Study 1, recall of a lottery prize reflected participants’ justice concerns, such that the average lottery amount recalled was lowest when a “bad” versus “good” person won. In Study 2, an unrelated experience of just world threat (versus affirmation) enhanced biased recall of the lottery prize when the winner was undeserving. In Study 3, participants who experienced a fortuitous bad break selectively remembered more bad deeds from their recent past, whereas participants who experienced a good break selectively remembered more good deeds. Study 4 demonstrates that such selective memory biases specifically serve to portray chance outcomes as more fair. Taken together, these findings offer support for the notion that reconstructing and selectively recalling the past can serve to sustain a BJW. |
| Keywords: | Belief in a just world Justice motivation Motivated memory Motivated cognition Reconstructive memory Selective memory |
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