关键词: 公正世界信念, 记忆偏差, 重构记忆, 应对方式

Abstract:

The belief in a just world (BJW) states that people have a need to believe that their environment is a just and orderly place where people usually get what they deserve and deserve what they get. The present research examined whether people would distort the past and reconstruct their memories to sustain the belief in a just world. Two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, 40 college students were recruited. The participants were asked to read a piece of news that someone won a lottery prize. Then they were required to answer some questions about the news to make sure that they had read the material seriously. Next, 18 positive or negative sentences were presented in sequence to describe the prize winner as a “good” or “bad” person. Lastly, participants were asked to recall the lottery prize. The results showed that a prize close to the real number was recalled for a “good” winner and a much lower prize was for a “bad” winner, which reflected participants’ justice belief influencing the reconstruction of memory. Experiment.2 used 2X2 between-subject design and 124 college students were recruited. At first, the participants were presented one of the two stories about the same person and his incurring but different endings, with the purpose to affect the participants’ BJW state in advance (to threaten or affirm the BJW). The following steps were as experiment 1. The results showed an interaction between the BJW state and the quality of the prize winner. In details, the recalled prize was not affected by the pre-activated BJW state for a “good” prize winner, while the pre-threatened group recalled less money than real prize number for a “bad” winner and the pre-affirmed group showed no difference memory for “good” and “bad” winner. The results suggested that an unrelated experience could transfer to the current situation and influence the memory reconstruction in order to sustain BJW. Taken together, these findings support for the notion that the memory reconstruction can serve as a coping reaction to sustain a BJW.

Key words: Belief in a Just World, Memory Bias, Reconstructive Memory, Coping Reaction