Altruism and threat to a belief in a just world

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of justice motivation and the presentation of the victim on the willingness of individuals to extend help to innocent victims. In the first experiment, individuals high and low in their belief in a just world were given an opportunity to offer their time and effort to help a needy victim. High believers in a just world offered less of their time when the victim was presented as one of many victims in a similar predicament than when the victim was presented as an isolated case. Low believers in a just world were not affected by the presentation of the victim, offering less help than Highs in the “isolate” condition and approximately equal help in the “group” condition. In the second experiment, subjects were given an opportunity to donate a portion of their experimental pay anonymously to needly families in the community. High believers in a just world donated more money when the need of the victims was presented as being temporary than when the suffering of the victims was presented as continuing. As was the case in Experiment 1, Lows were not affected by the experimental manipulation. The implications of these findings for an understanding of individuals' reactions to victims are discussed.