Karma is a concept that millions of people believe in to some extent or another. It is basically the idea that there is some force in the universe that helps to steer everything toward justice.

If someone does something bad, then something bad will happen to them. If someone is always doing good for other people, then something good will happen to them. Of course, it can get more complex than that depending on the exact belief, but that is a good enough place to start.

New research into people’s beliefs in Karma, however, shows that when it comes to Karma itself, most people don’t have a very good sense of justice. A paper was published in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality that found that those who believe in Karma tend to think that when a good thing happens to them, it is because of Karma.

When a bad thing happens to someone else, it is due to Karma.

In the reverse, however, it is not Karma.

Of course, this is not a phenomenon exclusively associated with Karma. Even people who say they don’t believe in Karma will often think that the good things in their life are because they earned or deserve them. Anything bad in their life is either because of someone else or bad luck.

To put it simply, people like to look at themselves in the best possible light, and others in the worst. There are differences between cultures, however. People in India and Singapore, for example, do not seem to have the same level of bias toward themselves that people in the USA do. Some people theorize that this is because the American sense of individualism leads to people thinking of themselves more positively than is justified by reality.

On the other side, people in other countries who put more importance on the community or society are likely to have a harsher view of themselves as individuals.

Cindel White from York University looked into how people see themselves and to whom they gave credit in this study. In a statement, she said:

“We found very similar patterns across multiple cultural contexts, including Western samples, where we know people often think about themselves in exaggeratedly positive ways, and samples from Asian countries where people are more likely to be self-critical. This satisfies various personal motives – to see oneself as good and deserving of good fortune, and to see justice in other people’s suffering – and supernatural beliefs like karma might be especially good at satisfying these motives when other, more secular explanations fail.”

The study does not suggest that people take any specific position when it comes to ‘cosmic justice’ or other types of Karma-like belief systems.

Knowing that both good and bad things happen to people and trying to make sense of it all can be very difficult for many.

If you found that story interesting, learn more about why people often wake up around 3 AM and keep doing it for life.