Although the perception of justice is a core need of all individuals, the adaptive value of belief in a just world (BJW)—in everyday life and when facing severe distress—has been typically investigated in separate studies. In this article, we tested, in only one study, the possibility that BJW can be a personal resource and a coping resource. We analysed data from the European Social Survey comprised of random representative samples of 27 European countries (N = 24,776 participants). We considered distressing circumstances both at an individual level (health impairment and financial difficulty) and at a macroeconomic contextual level. The results showed that for people both facing and not facing financial or health-related distress, BJW was positively associated with well-being, supporting BJW as a personal resource. Furthermore, we found that the decrease of well-being of people facing distress, both at an individual level and at a contextual level, compared to people not facing distress, was lower for individuals with higher BJW than for individuals with lower BJW, supporting BJW as a coping resource.

中文翻译：

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正义感与福祉：对正义世界的信念是个人资源和应对资源

尽管正义感是所有个人的核心需求，但正义世界信念（BJW）的适应性价值——在日常生活中和面临严重困境时——通常在单独的研究中进行调查。在本文中，我们仅在一项研究中测试了 BJW 成为个人资源和应对资源的可能性。我们分析了欧洲社会调查的数据，该调查由 27 个欧洲国家的随机代表性样本组成（N  = 24,776 名参与者）。我们在个人层面（健康受损和财务困难）和宏观经济背景层面考虑了令人痛苦的情况。结果表明，对于面临和未面临财务或健康相关困扰的人来说，BJW 与幸福感呈正相关，支持将 BJW 作为个人资源。此外，我们发现，与没有面临痛苦的人相比，面临痛苦的人的幸福感下降，无论是在个人层面还是在背景层面，BJW 较高的人比 BJW 较低的人要低，这支持了 BJW作为应对资源。