Concepts
Health psychology/Cognitive biases · Social cognitionlow yield
Just-world belief
What it means
The belief that the world is fundamentally fair, so people get what they deserve — which leads to blaming victims when bad things happen to them.
Worked example
Assuming an assault victim "must have done something" to provoke it.
In the exam
Told that a patient was mugged, a clinician’s immediate assumption is that the patient must somehow have brought it upon themselves.
What settles it
Just-world belief blames the VICTIM to preserve a sense that the world is fair. The fundamental attribution error blames a person’s character in general; just-world is specifically the need for outcomes to be deserved.
Classically confused with
Fundamental attribution error
Source: Lerner; social psychology