On Nov 23, 2022, the fourth “Topical Social Sciences Seminar” of Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (Fudan IAS) was held in Fudan University. The speaker of this session was Dr. Hui Fa, postdoctoral fellow at Fudan IAS and doctor of social psychology from Osaka University. The topic of her lecture is Just World Belief-General of College Students and the Impact of Internet Use on Them. Prof. Sujian Guo, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Fudan IAS, chaired the seminar. All research and post-doctoral fellows of Fudan IAS attended the seminar.

Dr. Fa first summarized some problematic points and shortcomings of the current research on the sense of justice of the group college students. She believes that although many theoretical studies have focused on the influence of online behaviors on their sense of social justice, relevant empirical studies have yet to be promoted. Meanwhile, due to the fact that college students have limited social experience and are still in the stage of identity transformation phase from students to social beings, they are more inclined to understand "justice" abstractly as the consistency between what they have paid and what they deserve. Therefore, it may be inappropriate to use the existing civil social justice scale (which requires subjects to evaluate specific areas such as social security and medical treatment) to measure the social justice of college students. Based on that, Dr. Fa introduced the concept of "just world belief-general" from social psychology. Just world belief-general reflects an individual's subjective perception of whether or not others in a society deserve what they get, which is consistent with college students' understanding of justice.

After describing the process and results of a questionnaire survey of 426 college students, Dr. Fa pointed out that the intensity, function, and motivation of Internet use correlate with the just world belief-general of college students. The two groups of college students with high and low just world belief-general have significantly different habits of Internet use: First, the group with low just world belief-general uses Internet at an earlier age and spends more time on the Internet on average every day; Second, this group uses microblogs, forums and other collective functions that enable participation in public affairs through social links on the Internet more frequently than the function of individual participation that emphasizes entertainment; Finally, compared with this group, the group with high just world belief-general has a higher motivation to express emotions and obtain information, and tends to believe that it has a better control over the time and frequency of Internet use.

Based on the above empirical findings, Dr. Fa believes that helping college students clarify the purpose and motivation of their own Internet use and enhance the sense of individual control may be an effective way to inhibit their perception of online injustice, which requires further argumentation and research. However, she also pointed out that the perception of injustice also reflects the university students’ sense of social responsibility and willingness to participate in public affairs, and its impact is not entirely negative. Therefore, how to reasonably guide the perception of injustice formed by college students in the network society is a theoretical and practical topic that deserves attention in the future.

After Dr. Fa’s speech, the participants discussed and exchanged their views on the concepts, theories, approaches and other issues related to this topic.