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Justice beliefs for self and others: Associations with positive and negative affectivity in African Americans and White Americans.

Authors :
Todd Lucas
Isaac M Lipkus
Ludmila Zhdanova
Source :
PLoS ONE, Vol 19, Iss 2, p e0297762 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2024.

Abstract

Prior research has shown that a belief in personal justice (i.e., justice for self) is associated with better health and well-being, whereas a belief in justice more generally (i.e., justice for others) is unrelated. However, an emerging perspective is that racial differences may overlay the relationships between multidimensional beliefs about justice and indices of well-being. This includes that well-being among African Americans may be additionally supported by rejecting rather than endorsing some forms of believing in justice. In the present study, we consider racial similarities and differences in the links between beliefs about justice for self and others and emotional well-being. African Americans (N = 117) and White Americans (N = 188) completed measures of beliefs about justice for self and others, and also measures of dispositional tendencies towards experiencing positive and negative emotion (i.e., positive and negative affectivity). In both groups, beliefs about justice for the self were associated with greater positive affect and reduced negative affect. However, beliefs about justice for others were additionally associated with greater negative affect only among African Americans. The link between justice for others and negative affect among African Americans was not attributable to measurement or mean differences in justice beliefs across racial groups, or to socioeconomic differences. Results align with an emerging perspective that simultaneously endorsing and rejecting justice beliefs may be vital to preserving well-being for some racial minorities.

Subjects

Subjects :
Medicine
Science

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19326203
Volume :
19
Issue :
2
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
PLoS ONE
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.b62c33a03bb4b688e164c73aca3ce9b
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297762&type=printable