Just world bias and karma

As i remarked to Maggie McNeill

Maggie McNeill I don’t believe in Hell, but I do believe in karma. And it’s going to be a long, long time before these savages work their way up into the range of full humanity. The important thing in the meantime is for the rest of us to stop giving them opportunities to exercise their bestial impulses on everyone else.

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Emil Too bad about that, that is, believing in karma. Is that the only irrational domain of your beliefs? I have not noticed anything else. A few of my friends who are also readers also commented on this exact thing.

Luckily, karma beliefs are rather harmless by themselves, and seem to be an effect of the Just World bias. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis

It seems spot on. The just world bias is exactly the reason why people believe in karma and other things? I did write that karma beliefs by themselves are rather harmless, but i can easily think of a few ways that bad things can happen becus of people's belief in karma/just world. For instance, if the world is just, then any observed suffering is deserved, and there is thus no reason to try to eliminate it. Irrational beliefs really are dangerous.