Investment in long-term goals and commitment to just means drive the need to believe in a just world

The author hypothesized that the less one focuses on long-term goals, or th e less one plans to achieve goals through just means, the less essential is the belief in a just world (BJW) and the less one will work at maintaining this belief when it is threatened. In Studies 1 and 2, participants' focus on long-term investments was either manipulated or measured, and their rea ctions to a victim who presented a high or low threat to the BJW were asses sed. In Study 2 the tendency to obtain goals through unjust means (delinque ncy) also was measured. As predicted, strong long-term focus and low-delinq uency participants reacted more negatively toward the high-threat victim, p resumably to maintain the BJW Study 3 showed that the more one focuses on l ong-term investments and the less one uses unjust means, the stronger one's BJW.