Beliefs about illness causality among preschoolers with cancer: evidence against immanent justice

Evaluated whether preschoolers with cancer are more or less likely than their healthy counterparts to consider illness a form of punishment for misdeeds (immanent justice). It was found that a sample of preschoolers with cancer (n = 17) rejected immanent justice as a general cause of illness, both in themselves and in others, just as frequently as healthy controls (n = 17). Both groups also rejected immanent justice in cases where misbehavior was prolonged. Children with cancer demonstrated a view of illness causality based on greater differentiation between themselves and other people, in that they were more likely than healthy controls to accept immanent justice as a cause of illness in themselves but not others, and vice versa. Finally, nearly all of the children with cancer who accepted immanent justice as a general cause of illness in themselves also attributed their cancer specifically to immanent justice.