Psychological Science ›› 2012, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (6): 1323-1327.

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The Effects of Belief in a Just World on Memory Bias

  

  • Received:2011-01-25 Revised:2012-05-08 Online:2012-11-20 Published:2012-11-20

公正世界信念对记忆偏差的影响

钟毅平1,邓棉琳2,2,肖丽辉2,2   

  1. 1. 湖南师范大学
    2.
  • 通讯作者: 钟毅平
  • 基金资助:

    湖南省社科基金项目

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

摘要:

公正世界信念指人们需要相信他们所处的世界是一个公正有序的世界。本研究考察的是公正世界信念是否影响人们的记忆,让人产生记忆偏差。实验一中,被试首先阅读一则彩票中奖的新闻,然后阅读关于中奖者人品的描述,最后被试需要回忆中奖金额。结果发现,中奖者的个性品质影响对奖金数额的记忆。实验二中,两组被试分别阅读一则维护公正世界信念或威胁公正世界信念的无关故事,接下来程序与实验一相同。结果发现,预先激活的公正世界信念状态与中奖者个性品质在记忆结果上存在显著的交互效应。结果表明,公正世界信念能够导致记忆偏差。

关键词: 公正世界信念, 记忆偏差, 重构记忆, 应对方式