Sirois, F. orcid.org/0000-0002-0927-277X and Iyer, A. orcid.org/0000-0001-7788-6709 (2018) “At least David Cameron resigned”: the protective effects of just-world beliefs for counterfactual thinking after Brexit. Personality and Individual Differences, 121 (15). pp. 25-30. ISSN 0191-8869
Abstract
Following an unexpected geo-political event, such as the United Kingdom’s June 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union (“Brexit”), people will make counterfactuals that mentally undo the outcome and imagine what might have been had the outcome gone in the predicted direction. Yet little is known about how such counterfactuals may impact well-being, or the individual differences that might protect individuals from making potentially distressing upward counterfactuals. We examined the extent to which individual differences in enduring just-world beliefs shape the number of upward counterfactuals generated by British “Remain” voters, and the resulting effects on vote-related well-being. Participants who were directed to make counterfactuals reported the same levels of vote-related well-being as those who were not directed to make counterfactuals. Among those who made counterfactuals, making more upward counterfactuals was associated with reduced well-being. However, holding just-world beliefs limited the number of upward counterfactuals that were made and thus protected individuals from this distress. Our findings demonstrate that individual differences in enduring beliefs about the fairness of a vote may protect voter well-being when there will not be a second vote.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Personality and Individual Differences. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Just-world beliefs; Counterfactual thoughts; Brexit; Well-being |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 14 Sep 2017 12:11 |
Last Modified: | 10 Nov 2023 12:03 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.paid.2017.09.015 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:121013 |