Is Ill-Health Our Own Fault?
David Canter considers the political and personal implications of believing in a just world and its personal resonance.
In the 1960s, Melvin Lerner, an American social psychologist, proposed that people need to believe in a just world. This “just-world hypothesis” can be summarized as “individuals get what they deserve.” This is the widespread idea that there is no such thing as coincidence, or a random happening with no apparent cause. At the heart of it is the worldview that what happens always has some justification.
Although tested over many years in cunning laboratory experiments there are many examples in public life that illustrate this belief in action. For example, when Lady Diana died in an accidental car crash, despite people accepting what a profoundly awful tragedy it was, some claimed there was some justice or logic to it. They claimed she should have been wearing a seatbelt or should have been more amenable to the paparazzi chasing her.
Another common expression is that “a country gets the government it deserves,” at least in an open democracy. That currently could be seen as explaining the mess in the United States by blaming those who voted for today’s president. In other words, just-world assumptions tend to drift towards accusing the victims for what they have suffered.
There is also a religious angle to this. The U.S. historian Kate Bowler has drawn attention to what is widely known as “The Prosperity Gospel.” This is a belief prevalent in some Protestant Christian communities that faith, positive declarations, and financial donations to churches or their pastors can bring health, wealth, and happiness to believers. The corollary of this is that those who are unwell or distraught in other ways, are experiencing the consequences of their lack of faith and positivity. In a nutshell, suffering signals moral or personal failure.
These considerations generated personal resonance with me when a month or so ago I got a rather disturbing medical diagnosis. A quick thought was to ask myself what have I done wrong? I’ve never smoked. I’ve never been a heavy drinker or abused chemical substances; ate my five a day and plenty of fiber. As an academic, dangerous, poisonous industrial processes have never been part of my working life. Fortunately, my residence for many years has been in quiet countryside. Neither have I indulged in dangerous sexual encounters!
The medical profession has no explanation of how I got this dangerous illness other than the amorphous, general-purpose nod towards possible genetics. The growing power of genetic analyses is revealing that an increasing number of illnesses can be traced back to malfunctions in the genome. But until that work has covered many more of the diseases that humans are prone to, reference to genetic explanations is not much help.
My contemplation of my condition, and the search for what I must have done to bring it about, made me realize I was still prone to the superstitions and related self-blaming, that I believed my rationality and logical approach to life had protected me against. This gave me the insight that if I harbored a belief in the just-world fallacy then its widespread power is probably underrated.
With a leap from the personal to the political, I wondered if these thought processes help to explain the bundle of attitudes that support Donald Trump’s presidency? Brought up in the arms of the British National Health Service, I’ve always found it difficult to understand why countries, the U.S. in particular, are so reluctant to embrace such a sensible and humanitarian way of dealing with illness. Is one of the pillars in the argument for the expensive and partisan health care in the U.S. that ill people are getting what they deserve? Well over half a million people file for bankruptcy each year in the U.S. due to medical bills or illness-related work loss. That is practically unheard of in Britain and other European countries.
Does the acceptance of this state of affairs in the U.S. accord with religious beliefs that illness is a consequence of a person’s way of being? Their lack of deep faith, enough giving and positivity. This perspective transforms a psychological bias into a moral system. A system that blames people for their suffering, creating what Kate Bowler calls “toxic positivity.” That turns misfortune into a moral judgement. It accepts financial success as the consequence of divine favor. If you cannot afford to pay for healthcare, it is because God has not recognized you as deserving it.
My own self-awareness has revealed how ingrained these belief systems are. They are, of course, not limited to U.S. citizens. There are parallels in African cultures where misfortune is attributed to spiritual failure, angry ancestors, or insufficient ritual alignment. The crucial point is that these belief systems, whether couched as just-world fallacy, or the prosperity gospel, are deeply embedded in the human psyche. No amount of evidence to the contrary will shake them. Trump making himself rich by his actions as president are seen as evidence of God’s support for his actions. People going bankrupt because they cannot pay medical bills shows that they have not been positive enough or paid the church effectively.
For me my diagnosis is a damn nuisance. I will not make it worse by believing it is my fault.
