Zhang Xiaoyu, Zhang Yanan
Center for Economic Research, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China.
Business School, Institute of New Structure Industry Development, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250358, China.
BMC Psychol. 2025 May 27;13(1):564. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-02897-5.
While belief in a just world has been extensively studied, the object of this belief still requires further specification. This study distinguishes two sources of uncertainty in future returns-nature and other people-and investigates whether belief in a just world is specifically directed toward human-sourced uncertainty but not nature-sourced uncertainty.
To test this hypothesis, an experiment was conducted in which participants decided whether to make an investment based on their beliefs about the return they would receive from another player. The identity of the other player was varied (computer or human, representing nature-sourced uncertainty and human-sourced uncertainty, respectively), and participants' level of belief in a just world was manipulated using a priming method. Multiple statistical analyses were conducted to examine the differences in investment behavior and expected returns between computer and human conditions.
When interacting with human players, participants in the just-world priming condition showed significantly higher investment rates and expected returns compared to those in the unjust-world priming condition. In contrast, when interacting with computer players, the differences between just-world and unjust-world conditions were non-significant, both for investment rates and expected returns. Mediation analysis further revealed that expected return mediated the relationship between priming condition and investment behavior in the human player condition.
These findings demonstrate that belief in a just world influences decision-making when interacting with human players but not with computer players, supporting our hypothesis that belief in a just world mainly targets human-sourced uncertainty but not nature-sourced uncertainty. This research advances our theoretical understanding of belief in a just world and contributes to our understanding of its functions for both individuals and society.
虽然对公正世界的信念已得到广泛研究，但这种信念的对象仍需进一步明确。本研究区分了未来回报中不确定性的两个来源——自然和他人，并调查了对公正世界的信念是否特别针对人为来源的不确定性，而不是自然来源的不确定性。
为了检验这一假设，进行了一项实验，参与者根据他们对从另一个参与者那里获得的回报的信念来决定是否进行投资。另一个参与者的身份有所不同（计算机或人类，分别代表自然来源的不确定性和人为来源的不确定性），并且使用启动方法操纵参与者对公正世界的信念水平。进行了多项统计分析，以检验计算机和人类条件下投资行为和预期回报的差异。
当与人类参与者互动时，公正世界启动条件下的参与者与不公正世界启动条件下的参与者相比，投资率和预期回报显著更高。相比之下，当与计算机参与者互动时，公正世界和不公正世界条件之间在投资率和预期回报方面的差异均不显著。中介分析进一步表明，预期回报在人类参与者条件下介导了启动条件与投资行为之间的关系。
这些发现表明，对公正世界的信念在与人类参与者互动时会影响决策，但与计算机参与者互动时则不会，这支持了我们的假设，即对公正世界的信念主要针对人为来源的不确定性，而不是自然来源的不确定性。这项研究推进了我们对公正世界信念的理论理解，并有助于我们理解其对个人和社会的功能。
