Abstract. Recent research on psychological consequences of negative treatment at the workplace has focused new interest on the targeted employee's just-world assumptions. In line with prior work, the present study sought evidence for the hypothesis that repeated and prolonged exposure to such treatment has adverse effects on the belief in a just world (BJW) and its function in sustaining a positive outlook and mental health. To this end, a group of 54 self-labeled victims of mobbing was compared with a matched control group on measures of their justice beliefs and dimensions of their adjustment (depression, optimism, pessimism, trust, and cynicism). The results showed that the perceived victimization by mobbing (rather than the mere frequency of exposure to negative acts at the workplace) was associated with worse adjustment and a weaker belief in the justness of the world. In particular, a personal BJW was found to be sensitive to the perceived victimization, whereas a general BJW did not differ between victims and controls. The relationships of justice beliefs to adjustment dimensions were basically unaffected by victim status. Among the dimensions of adjustment, trust proved to be most strongly associated with victimization and justice beliefs.
In: Tybur , J M , Inbar , Y , Aarøe , L , Barclay , P , Barlow , F K , de Barra , M , Becker , D V , Borovoi , L , Choi , I , Choi , J A , Consedine , N S , Conway , A , Conway , J R , Conway , P , Cubela Adoric , V , Demirci , E , Fernández , A M , Ferreira , D C S , Ishii , K , Jakšić , I , Ji , T , Van Leeuwen , F , Lewis , D M G , Li , N P , McIntyre , J C , Mukherjee , S , Park , J H , Pawlowski , B , Petersen , M B , Pizarro , D , Prodromitis , G , Prokop , P , Rantala , M J , Reynolds , L M , Sandin , B , Sevir , B , de Smet , D , Srinivasan , N , Tewari , S , Wilson , C , Yong , J C & Žeželj , I 2016 , ' Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations ' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , vol. 113 , pp. 12408-12413 . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607398113
People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for the relationship between pathogens and politics. The first, which is an intragroup, traditional norms account, holds that these relationships are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogen neutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup, outgroup-avoidance account, holds that relationships between pathogen avoidance and ideology are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups (who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members). Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the traditional norms account than with the outgroup-avoidance account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to social dominance orientation within the 30 nations.
