Individuals and illnesses as sources of perceived preventability.

Perceived preventability of illness is an important predictor of health behaviour and response to illness. Yet, health experts remain largely unaware of the extent to which preventability attributions reflect characteristics of persons, illnesses and their interaction. Quantifying the sources of variance that compose illness preventability attributions may be especially useful for designing effective preventative health interventions.

Belief in a just world, social influence and illness attributions: evidence of a just world boomerang effect.

Characteristics of individuals and illnesses can both influence receptivity to preventative health messages. We examined whether receptivity to health messages depends on interactions between illness characteristics and dispositional concern for justice. Participants considered the preventability of six illnesses after exposure to a message that manipulated personal responsibility for illness.

Just world beliefs, perceived stress, and health behavior: The impact of a procedurally just world.

Recent research suggests that a just world view may promote good health while low belief in a just world may deleteriously affect well-being. However, this research is limited in that specific components of justice beliefs that are important to health are not well articulated. Additionally, many potential pathways linking perceived fairness to physical health remain largely unexplored.