Belief in a just world: support for independent just world and unjust world dimensions

The study determined if Furnham's proposed Just World and Unjust World subscales (1985. European Journal of Social Psychology, 15, 363–366) could be recovered from Rubin and Peplau's Just World Scale (JWS) (1973. Journal of Social Issues, 29, 73–93; 1975. Journal of Social Issues, 31, 65–89). The study also examined the psychometric properties of the JWS, in particular, the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, relation to social desirability, and concurrent validity of this long-established scale. Findings from a sample of 253 Canadian management undergraduates revealed strong support for the uncorrelated two-factor solution, just and unjust world dimensions, but continuing concerns over the low scale and subscale reliabilities. JWS scores were independent of social desirability scores as measured by the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960. Journal of Consulting Pschology, 24, 349–354). Results suggest that researchers use the just and unjust world scores in addition to overall scores.