"Justice" is a weird concept

[patrick___]

Some of you may have seen my link on Facebook about the problems associated with holding a "belief in a just world". Psychological experiments have been performed that show a large percentage of people will tend to blame people being in bad situations, and praise people for being in good ones, even if those situations have nothing at all to do

Comments

[patrick___]

That sounds like a really interesting book. I've noticed the same thing. I remember hearing interviews with Herman Cain and thinking he had exactly that sort of experience. He worked really hard in the pizza business and became a multimillionaire. From his perspective, it was all about hard work. But I know a ton of hard working, entrepreneurial Americans who do everything "right" that they can, and still never make a great living from it. Likewise, there are plenty of rich people who have money without having to have had work for it (e.g., the Paris Hilton's of the world). And of course, plenty of people somewhere in between. Those who do work really hard and become really successful don't realize how much providence was involved in their wealth, because all they can think of is the hard work they put into it. The whole "just world" and personal ego aspects have to strongly influence this too