Perceptions of Risk and the Buffering Hypothesis: The Role of Just World Beliefs and Right-Wing Authoritarianism

Abstract

Although perceptions of risk have been studied extensively by both social and cognitive psychologists, relatively little work has focused on individual differences in these perceptions. Across two studies, the authors examined the relationship of perceived risk to just world beliefs (BJW) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). Both studies showed that these two variables have interactive effects on perceived risk across a wide variety of different types of threats (e.g., getting hijacked, contracting AIDS). Among high authoritarians, participants felt much less at risk if they believed in a just world than if they did not. Among low authoritarians, however, BJW and perceived risk were unrelated. Results are conceptualized in terms of a buffering hypothesis, which suggests that the extent to which self-protective variables (such as BJW) mediate risk are most pronounced among persons who view the world in threatening terms (i.e., high authoritarians). Implication of these findings for previous models of risk and personality development are discussed.