By Oliver Burkeman
The Guardian
Originally posted on February 3, 2015
Here is an excerpt:
What’s truly unsettling about the just-world bias is that while it can have truly unpleasant effects, these follow from what seems like the entirely understandable urge to believe that things happen for a reason. After all, if we didn’t all believe that to some degree, life would be an intolerably chaotic and terrifying nightmare in, which effort and payback were utterly unrelated, and there was no point planning for the future, saving money for retirement or doing anything else in hope of eventual reward. We’d go mad. Surely wanting the world to make a bit more sense than that is eminently forgivable?
Yet, ironically, this desire to believe that things happen for a reason leads to the kinds of positions that help entrench injustice instead of reducing it.
The entire article is here.
Editor's Note: My suspicion is that this has a direct application to therapist's views of patients. Self-reflection and understanding biases help to reduce negative influences in our lives.
