Issue #28: Do People Get What They Deserve?
Learn about our cognitive biases, victim-blaming and the belief in a fair world
Dear mental health advocate,
Hope your week is starting off well! As two weeks have passed, it is time for a new edition of The Present Psychologist Paper. In this issue I will deep dive a bit into social psychology: why we often believe people get what they deserve (and how dangerous this can be). We all want to convince ourselves we live in a fair world where we get good things if we are a good person and that people will be punished if they are bad. But is this true? Keep reading to find out…
This Year’s Archive 📂
Whether you are new to The Present Psychologist Paper or not, I’d like to let you know that on this platform I send out biweekly editions with articles about psychology and mental health. Every other week I send out a free version, but also a paid version. The free one consists of one article, the paid one has two extra. If you are interested, I have a 30% discount both for the monthly and yearly subscription.
Instead of $5.50 a month or $55 a year you can now subscribe for $3.85 a month or $38.50 a year! The price of a cheap takeaway coffee each month, cancellable when you want and you would support me as a freelancer to keep the content going as well as improve your own mental health.
If you subscribe, you will also get access to the complete archive of all the previous editions and bonus content. Here you can see all these older issues:
The Present Psychologist Paper Premium Editions
Advice Columns
Bonus Content
Do People Get What They Deserve?
Good fortune and being successful are things many of us try to strive towards in some sense. Some more than others, yes, but surely all of us would rather have the good stuff instead of the bad stuff happening. What has always interested me is how people’s belief systems play a role in how they approach life, success and happiness. I came to the conclusion that for many of us, we enjoy a certain sense of control. Which sounds logical right? If we are believe that we cannot influence anything, then we are stuck with only uncertainty and us humans generally do not like that feeling. Psychologists have researched how our belief system works when it comes to control and rewards. And the findings are quite interesting.
Obviously, the majority of us feel most at ease when we have control over our own lives, at least to some extent. We are comfortable if we know what we can expect and also when we know that our actions will lead to a reward. Yes, even altruistic behavior. We help others out because we think that it will bring them something. This reward does not necessarily have to be one for yourself. These beliefs are all strongly founded on the following idea: people get what they deserve. The world around is is so complex, and if we believe we have no control over anything in our life then it will be challenging to even get one thing done.
Living in a fair world
While it definitely makes sense to want and believe in ‘being in control’, it can lead to some misconceptions. Social psychologists have seen that these thoughts result in humans thinking that we live in a ‘fair and just world’. This basically means that many of us are convinced that people who do good things get rewards for what they do and people who do bad things will instead be punished for it. In psychology we call this the ‘just-world hypothesis’. It is a cognitive bias, because in our brain it becomes some sort of a rule, although in reality it is not always the truth. Sure, there is a relationship between the things we do and the things we get.
If you are nice to someone else, then it is more likely that the other person is nice to you too. Action causes reaction. However, in this ‘just-world hypothesis’ cognitive bias we believe that people always get what they deserve and this makes it easier in our minds to actually predict what will happen. It gives us the idea that we can control the outcome of events. But the problem here is, this does not always hold true. Because we place too much importance on personality traits and characteristics (good people getting good things), we forget the reality of a situation. Sounds complex? I will try to explain.
Social psychologist Melvin Lerner was the one who researched this and wrote a lot about this belief we have in a fair world. He claims it is some sort of coping mechanism. We want to believe we get good things when we are good people, because it is too agonizing to realize that bad things happen to good people and vice versa. It is easier to be convinced that if something bad happens to someone, it must be because they did something bad or because they are a bad person. If not, then we feel way too vulnerable. Let me further explain this by deep diving into an example you might be familiar with: victim-blaming.
Victim-blaming and dealing with this cognitive bias
If I read comments on social media in the section below news articles, I am sometimes shocked by the lack of empathy. For example, when there is a case of a rape or an abused person, there are always people who claim that the victim probably had it coming. If it is a female who suffered this attack, some are quick to judge by saying she must have worn clothes that provoked the attacker. Or that she just should have said no, she probably misled the person who did it to her. Do you see the coping mechanism from the commenter here? It is just too scary for them to believe that abuse or rape can happen to anyone, so they choose to believe this person probably deserved it.
It can be a dangerous cognitive bias, this just-world hypothesis. The victim blaming is a clear example of this. But, believing in karma and rewards is not a black-and-white situation. It is not all bad. As mentioned before, there is still a strong relationship between doing good things and getting good things. You do have control when it comes to many aspects of your life. You are free to make decisions and work hard for rewards. You deserve to get the things you want and need. The reason why I wanted to tell you about this belief system is to show you that there is nuance and complexity in life. We do not have full control, but we also do not lack control completely.
To calm your nerves and worries about the future, it is necessary to be aware of this balance. We sometimes forget to see light at the end of the tunnel, because we are going through a rough period and we feel we have lost control. We sometimes tell ourselves we are a bad person, and that is why we deserve unhappiness. Keep fighting those thoughts, because we deserve good things. But at the same time, we also need to be aware that we cannot control everything. We need to accept that there are moments when life is unfair. And if it is, then we have to fight to keep our heads up high and fight for better days. Because often, these will come.
Build Your Own Online Mental Health Account!
Starting on social media can be very overwhelming. It takes a lot of time and is not always easy. Some people have reached out to me they want to start their own mental health account but do not have much hours left in a day to make infographics. Therefore, I have created a bundle of 50 templates built in Canva. If you are interested, click on the button below to get them with a discount.
Help me raise awareness 💌
My name is Alf Lokkertsen and I am a psychologist and writer, creating mental health content for you. My passion is to raise awareness about topics related to psychology, as it has helped me greatly in my personal life. I strongly believe that many problems could be avoided or dealt with better if everyone had some in-depth psychology knowledge.
Will you help me achieve my goal by spreading this newsletter? 5550 mental health advocates already have subscribed. Help me out by sharing this subscription link either within your network or mention/tag me on social media!
Not subscribed to The Present Psychologist Paper yet yourself? Please click the button below to ensure you will receive the next edition in your inbox:
If you have any questions, please comment here and I am happy to respond!