Social-cognitive and motivational processes underlying the justice motive

Abstract

This chapter studies psychological processes that may underlie people’s justice concerns. The psychological processes the chapter examines include both social-cognitive and motivational processes. In particular, the chapter discusses a two-phase model of self-interest and justice concerns, rationalistic and experiential paths to blaming of innocent victims and their relationship with explicit just-world beliefs, future orientation and coping with personal uncertainty, and self-regulatory processes pertaining to the just-world motive. The chapter closes by discussing some issues pertaining to the modern, scientific study of the justice motive. In discussing these conceptual and methodological issues pertaining to justice concerns, the current chapter builds on and hopes to extend the groundbreaking work on the justice motive by Lerner and others. The psychological processes studied in this chapter may contribute to the process-oriented study of the psychology of the justice motive.