Cross-cultural generalisability of the belief in a just world: Factor analytic and psychometric evidence from six countries

The belief in a just world (BJW) is theorised to be a universal personality disposition. In this study we contrast this notion with that of Justice Capital, which suggests that BJW varies based on the individual's justice expe-rience. We achieve this comparison via a psychometric analysis of the BJW scales across cultural and de-mographic groups. Invariance; equivalence of reliability metrics; differences in latent means; and consistency in construct validity-differential associations with perceived control, hopelessness, and optimism-were analysed across Germany, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Turkey, the USA, sex, age, income type, and economic status (n = 1250). Findings provide support for both the universality and malleability of BJW. We discuss how these findings advance BJW theorising and their important implications for BJW measurement.