Moral Interpretations of History: Belief in a Just World and interpretations of the Colonization of América

BARREIRO, ALICIA VIVIANA

Chicago

Simposio; 43th Annual Meetings of the Jean Piaget Society; 2013

Jean Piaget Society

In the last decades several studies has shown that societies construct moral narratives to justify their participation in conflicting events. Different researches had shown the existence of moralized interpretations by which historical events are understood in terms of "good" or "bad" and "winners" or "losers". Those categories are not intended to promote understanding of the past; on the contrary, they are useful to development of identity, by the legitimization of past actions (Carretero, 2011). Paez, et. al. 2008). This moralized interpretation of history could be made possible by the ideological belief in a just world (BJW) (Lerner, 1980, 2003), which operates by blaming victims for their suffering. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relations between this ideological belief and the interpretations of the consequences of the Colonization of America. A study cross-sectional study was carried out, with a convenience sample of university students (N=404). The participants were asked to answer if they considered the Discovery of America as just, unjust or neither of both and they had to write the arguments supporting their choice. Besides, they answered the General Belief in a Just World Scale (Lipkus, 1991). The results indicate that the participants who considered unjust the consequences of this historical event obtained lower scores in the scale (F(2,383)4.97, p=.007). It is concluded that the Belief in a Just World constrains the individual interpretations of this historical event, neglecting the injustice and legitimizing Spanish's actions.