I am interested in how historically recent this feature is.
One feature that stands out about ancient religions (eg. Egyptian, Viking) is that the fables don’t consistently reward the good and punish the bad. They also have this aspect that (for me on first reading) was very surprising, that after death you go to different underworlds based not on merit or on accepting the one true faith but instead based on fairly random contingent things kind of outside your own control. For Vikings Valhala only for those who die in battle. In Egypt while you cross over to the next world their is a wasteland where hyenas might eat your soul if you are simply unlucky (although this risk can be mitigated with certain charms and things).
My theory is that the “just world hypothesis” is not a feature of human nature at all, but a cultural meme that is currently doing quite well. Maybe we got it from the Greeks (via the Christians), Greek myths don’t tend to feel culturally alien in the same way. (They punish people who are idiots (Icarus), or greedy (Midas). Way more compatible with our standards.)
I am interested in how historically recent this feature is.
One feature that stands out about ancient religions (eg. Egyptian, Viking) is that the fables don’t consistently reward the good and punish the bad. They also have this aspect that (for me on first reading) was very surprising, that after death you go to different underworlds based not on merit or on accepting the one true faith but instead based on fairly random contingent things kind of outside your own control. For Vikings Valhala only for those who die in battle. In Egypt while you cross over to the next world their is a wasteland where hyenas might eat your soul if you are simply unlucky (although this risk can be mitigated with certain charms and things).
My theory is that the “just world hypothesis” is not a feature of human nature at all, but a cultural meme that is currently doing quite well. Maybe we got it from the Greeks (via the Christians), Greek myths don’t tend to feel culturally alien in the same way. (They punish people who are idiots (Icarus), or greedy (Midas). Way more compatible with our standards.)