From Feelings of Injustice to Social Pessimism: Citizens' Double Suffering

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between social justice and social pessimism among citizens. The theories of Durkheim, Giddens, Ted Robert gurr and Merton were used to formulate the theoretical framework. The method used in this study was survey and the sample size was 385 people based on Cochran formula and the samples were selected by multistage cluster sampling. The questionnaire was researcher-made and the validity of it was content and its reliability was measured by calculating the Cronbach's alpha. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS softwares. Findings showed that the mean of social justice (1.84) is low and the social pessimism of the majority of respondents (68.8%) is moderate. There is an inverse relationship between sense of social justice (independent variable) - the dimensions of which are "distributive justice, interactive justice and procedural justice"- and social pessimism (dependent variable). As a result, as social justice decreases, so does social pessimism. Analysis of the structural equation model showed that the sense of social justice explains 17% of the changes in social pessimism. The results indicate the need to pay more attention to the discussion of social justice in order to prevent the spread of social pessimism.