Abstract

BARREIRO, Alicia  and  ZUBIETA, Elena. Cognitive parsimony and legitimization of social injustice: the belief in a just world and latin american fatalism. Anu. investig. [online]. 2011, vol.18, pp.219-226. ISSN 1851-1686.

This paper deals with a topic which belongs to social psychology: common sense knowledge. In particular, it analyzes the different beliefs that enable people to think and feel in control -or not- to their environment. This paper makes focus on just world belief and the Latin-American fatalism. Both beliefs are psychological in origin, based on the need for environmental control and their contents serve the function of legitimating social order, supporting the status quo. It is concluded that the complexity of such phenomena involves interdisciplinary studies, which link different levels of analysis in order to explain how psychological mechanisms are related to social historical processes shaping the world views about reality that social groups hold.

Keywords : Latin American fatalism; Belief in a Just World; Ideology; psychological control.

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