Reactions toward the Dying: The Effects of a Patient's Illness and Respondents' Beliefs in a Just World

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate respondents' feelings about and willingness to volunteer to help (by telephoning or visiting) a dying cancer patient versus a patient with cancer in remission or one portrayed as having a broken leg. Another purpose of the study was to explore the effects of an individual's belief in a just world on his feelings and behaviors toward the dying. As expected, respondents exhibited less positive affect toward the cancer patient than toward patients in the other conditions. Over all conditions, the more attractive the patient was perceived to be, and the less physical pain the patient was perceived to be experiencing, the more positive the respondents' affect was. The assumption derived from Lerner's Just World Theory suggesting that high believers on the just world scale would be likely to exhibit less positive affect and greater avoidance toward the dying than low believers was not supported.