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Journal of Health Psychology
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Belief in a Just World, Social Influence and Illness Attributions

Evidence of a Just World Boomerang Effect

Todd Lucas

Wayne State University, USA, tlucas{at}med.wayne.edu

Sheldon Alexander

Wayne State University, USA

Ira Firestone

Wayne State University, USA

James M. Lebreton

Purdue University, USA

Characteristics of individuals and illnesses can both influence receptivity to preventative health messages. We examined whether receptivity to health messages depends on interactions between illness characteristics and dispositional concern for justice. Participants considered the preventability of six illnesses after exposure to a message that manipulated personal responsibility for illness. Paradoxically, participants with strong just world beliefs reported greater preventability for less preventable illnesses, such as brain cancer, when exposed to an unpreventable health message. In parallel, participants with low justice beliefs reported less preventability for lung cancer when exposed to a preventable message. This just world boomerang effect suggests that individual dispositions and illness characteristics can interact in ways that can produce either acquiescence or opposition to persuasive health messages.

Key Words: boomerang effect • illness attribution • just world • procedural justice

Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 2, 258-266 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1359105308100210
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