Variability and Belief in Karma: Perceived Life Variability Polarizes Perceptions of Behavior-Outcome Valence Consistency

Abstract

This article explores people's karma belief on the subjective probabilities of future chance events and how perceived life variability influences the expectations of behavior-outcome relationships through three studies. Study 1 used two experiments (Study 1a and 1b) and found that individuals believed that there is a causal association between moral actions and future experiences. People tended to make karmic forecasts that predicted a luckier future (reflected in probability judgments of lucky and unfortunate chance events) for a person who behaved morally than for one who behaved immorally. Finally, we found that individuals rely more heavily on belief in karma (i.e., stronger beliefs about the valence consistency of behaviors and outcomes) when they perceive greater life variability in their lives (Study 2), suggesting that the perceived life variability is a factor in using karma to make predictions.

Keywords: future experiences; karma; moral behavior; perceived life variability.

Figure 1

The effect of the source of a person’s morality on subjective probability judgments for good luck events, Studies 1a and 1b.

Figure 2

The moderating effect of perceived life variability in the relationship between moral actions and future luck experiences, Study 2.