Just-World Fallacy/Theory/Hypothesis

The topic that we as Americans believe that the world is fair is not uncommon, and many theories have been made as to why. Many people have conducted limited studies of the existence of if it exists, but few have been made to as of why. David McRaney in his blog and his book, both titled, You Are Not So Smart, has gathered the research to the theories and is quoted in many places when people need to explain the meaning of the fallacy. Basically, Just-World Fallacy is the belief that the victim of misfortune had some part to play in the punishment that they received. More easily said as, Victim's Fault.

One of the many logo of You Are Not So Smart

Usually when people look for an example, they point to rape victims or bullies and their victims. The original thought for the rape victim deserving punishment is that maybe she wears a mini skirt without panties and a bikini top or some other stupid, whorish combination of clothing and decided to go into a bad neighbor hood and get lost and eventually raped. The thought is that the woman who decided to make herself a target deserves the punishment for her stupidity. Funnily enough, according to Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez in their essay, The Just World Theory, The two a fore mentioned people quoted a researcher about this theory named Melvin J. Lehrer, who said, that basically if an innocent person is in an unfavorable predicament, the observers degrade the person in order to bring a feeling of justice and normality in the events that led to the person in distress' misfortune. So with this logic, those who have bad things happen to them are seen as those who are deserving. Though this logic, Poor people are lazy and the rich are industrious. The famous are famous and the unknown didn't try hard enough, not pointing any fingers *cough* Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian *cough* but as I was saying before the abnormally long cough, people have this perception that people deserve what they have because we as people want the world to be fair to coincide with pop fiction and justice.

Men dressed like suggestive women in The Longest Yard.

But people who stumble on misfortune shouldn't be dismayed from the things that happened to put them where they are, because people look to many other things to judge a person by than their socioeconomic situation or victim status. Unfortunately, sometimes people can't rise out of their dismay but are installed with the hope that if they are morally good or virtuous that they can rise out of the hole that they are in. This too is part of the Just-World Fallacy idea. This isn't necessarily the case, sometimes good people rot away in the sewers of the world and the scammers and con-artists thrive in the highest positions in the world. The only way we can fix this major upheaval of right versus wrong is eliminate Evil but the problem is, that we have this tendency to blame the wrong suspect. We all know that it's not fair and just to send the wrong person to jail, so why do we blame the victim so oftenly? The only way to get rid of the evil in the world is to get rid of the committers of the crimes. The person who preformed the act of defiling or sin is to blame when things go awry, but the victim should also have a grip with reality to understand that the world isn't just and treat it as such so as not to get raped, beaten or bullied. With a combination of common sense and intelligence, justice can be brought and evil can be prevented in the world.

Even with the thought of Justice though, what can you hope to regain from a crime? The best explanation of the justice system in America that I've heard was from my Driver's Ed teacher. The symbol of Lady Justice, a blind woman, showing that all are seen as equals, holding a sword, representing judgement through force, holding unequal scales, meaning that no matter what, the crime can not be taken back and that the courts are only trying to give compensation and balance the scales. No matter how much money the family gets, does it make up for the murder of the late family member? The hardest thing to do after suffering a grievance is to settle back to a form of normality and return to normal life.

Lady Justice