Confronted with Bullying when You Believe in a Just World

Bullying has been recognized as a phenomenon that detrimentally affects the lives of many, and researchers continue to explore its various influences and correlates. We examined the relationship between the global belief in a just world (BJW; a person’s tendency to believe that life is fair and people get what they deserve) and reactions to bullying. Although BJW is undergirded by a justice motive, and although previous research found that global BJW is associated with more negative explicit attitudes toward bullying in the abstract, we hypothesized that strong global BJW beliefs would instead predict more tolerance and less condemnation when participants were presented with specific behaviors that could be construed as bullying. In two vignette-based experiments, global BJW (but not personal BJW), predicted less negative reactions to bullying, and did so regardless of whether the behavior was explicitly labeled as being a case of bullying. Implications of these results are discussed.

Towards a Theory of Marketing Systems as the Public Good

© The Author(s) 2018. The Marketing-Systems-as-the-Public-Good framework proposed in this article outlines the general principles of interpreting change in marketing systems. The framework advances a view of purposeful temporal change based on collective practices that a) identify, develop and maintain key common resources; b) initiate public-private asset transitions; c) facilitate contributory participation of market actors in marketing system processes; and d) perpetuate attenuating mechanisms. These processes construct the system as the public good with non-excludable and non-subtractable (dis)benefits. The drive for further change arises when the system’s overarching structures infuse value creation practices with macromotive-based meaningfulness (e.g. the justice motive) which differentially resonates in market actors’ lived experiences, who through ongoing localized socio-political discourses and contestation undertake to correct perceived justice digressions. The case of the historical evolution of the Uzbek Bozor Marketing System illustrates the key elements of the proposed framework.

Towards a Theory of Marketing Systems as the Public Good

© The Author(s) 2018. The Marketing-Systems-as-the-Public-Good framework proposed in this article outlines the general principles of interpreting change in marketing systems. The framework advances a view of purposeful temporal change based on collective practices that a) identify, develop and maintain key common resources; b) initiate public-private asset transitions; c) facilitate contributory participation of market actors in marketing system processes; and d) perpetuate attenuating mechanisms. These processes construct the system as the public good with non-excludable and non-subtractable (dis)benefits. The drive for further change arises when the system’s overarching structures infuse value creation practices with macromotive-based meaningfulness (e.g. the justice motive) which differentially resonates in market actors’ lived experiences, who through ongoing localized socio-political discourses and contestation undertake to correct perceived justice digressions. The case of the historical evolution of the Uzbek Bozor Marketing System illustrates the key elements of the proposed framework.

Does long-term focus increase victim-blaming? A study on the just-world hypothesis using the modified Stroop task

According to the just-world hypothesis (Lerner, 1980), people have an inherent need to believe that the world is a just place, where people generally get wha t they deserve. One of the benefits of holding this conviction is that it can promote investing in long-term goals. Acts of secondary victimization, such as blaming or derogating the victim can also be explained by just-world beliefs. This study looked at the effect of perceiving an innocent victim (a supposed threat to the belief in a just world) and long-term focus on the activation of the justice motive. We measured participants’ reaction times for justice-related and other stimuli with the help of the modified Stroop task (N=66). A significant difference between justice-related and neutral words has been found after being confronted with the threat to the belief in a just world, indicating that it indeed activated participants’ justice motive. Long-term focus did not have any significant effect. Higher levels of belief in a random world have been associated with greater victim-blaming tendencies.

Motive for Social Justice and Students Activism at University Level

Student organizations exist to protect the rights and interests of their members. Therefore, if they are organized into representative student governments, students can be a very influential agent who shapes the policy of higher education, and build themselves as democratic force in the society. The purpose of this study conducted by Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research (ISPJR), Skopje was to consider student activism at university level in light of social justice motive. The data show that components of social justice motive influence the activism in Student Organization but also certainly proved that educational system of the country has serious omissions and errors in developing responsible and active youth and the country has to invest in its students because good student organization, in addition to exercising rights, freedoms and needs, and engaging in improving students’ standard and their well-being, means investing in an active, efficient, motivated and democratic youth.