Justice-Related Cognitive Styles, Daily Injustices, and Social Functioning in Resettled Refugees

Abstract Purpose Refugees are often exposed to injustice across the displacement journey, leading to persistent difficulties in social functioning. It is important to understand environmental and psychological factors driving processes like trust and cooperation to inform efforts to improve social functioning. In this study, we investigated whether cognitive styles and daily injustices were relevant factors influencing trust and cooperation in refugees. Methods Participants were 102 refugees from Arabic- and Farsi-speaking backgrounds resettled in Australia. Participants completed a self-report measure of justice-related cognitive styles (specifically victim and perpetrator sensitivity) and then were randomly allocated to one of two conditions where they were primed with an audio scenario representing daily injustices (unjust condition), or a neutral audio scenario (neutral condition). Participants then completed behavioural tasks to index interpersonal trust (Trust Game) and cooperation (Ultimatum Game). Results Multiple regression analyses indicated that justice-related cognitive styles predicted trust behaviour. Specifically, victim sensitivity predicted lower trust behaviour, while perpetrator sensitivity predicted greater trust behaviour. Being primed with a daily injustice predicted reduced cooperation behaviour. There were no significant interactions between being primed with injustice and justice-related cognitive styles. Conclusions These results highlight the relevance of justice-related constructs for adaptive social functioning in refugees. This includes experimental evidence for the differential influence of cognitive styles and daily injustices on trust and cooperation. The findings raise important implications for resettlement programming and clinical practice as they suggest both internal (e.g., cognitive styles) and external factors (e.g., experiences of injustice) should be targeted to support refugee wellbeing.