Good karma for me, bad karma for you: Study reveals the psychology behind our karmic bias

Hindustan Times

02-05-2025

Karma is a belief many people hold close, the idea that good deeds bring rewards and bad ones invite punishment. But according to a new study published in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, we tend to apply this belief differently depending on who we're thinking about. When it comes to ourselves, we're more likely to credit our successes to good karma. But when others face setbacks, we often assume they're paying the price for past misdeeds. (Also read: Do you frequently argue with your partner? Ask them these 4 questions that can change the way you approach conflicts )
The researchers proposed that two competing psychological motivations shape our beliefs about karma: the desire for a just world (where wrongdoers are punished) and a self-positivity bias (our need to see ourselves in a good light). These forces influence whether we focus on karmic punishment or karmic reward and for whom.
To test their theory, they asked over 2,000 participants to recall a karmic event in either their own lives or someone else's. In the first study, conducted in the U.S. with 478 participants who all believed in karma, 86% chose to write about their own experiences. Among those, 59% described positive events as rewards for their good actions. But when it came to others, the script flipped: 92% of those who recalled karmic experiences involving someone else described negative outcomes.
In a second, larger experiment with more than 1,200 people, including participants from the U.S., Singapore, and India, the results echoed the first study. Nearly 70% of those writing about themselves reported positive karmic outcomes, while only 18% said the same about others. Sentiment analysis of the stories showed that self-related karmic events were described using more positive language.
Interestingly, this self-favoring bias was slightly less pronounced in the Indian and Singaporean participants compared to those from the U.S. This aligns with previous research suggesting that people in Western cultures often lean toward viewing themselves in an overly positive light, while Asian cultures tend to foster more self-critical perspectives.
Ultimately, White's research reveals how supernatural beliefs like karma serve psychological needs. 'Thinking about karma allows people to take personal credit and feel pride in good things that happen to them, even when the cause isn't clear,' she explained. 'At the same time, it lets them justify the suffering of others as deserved.'
This mental framing satisfies two deep-seated human desires: to see ourselves as morally good and deserving of success and to believe that justice exists in the world. When rational explanations fall short, karma steps in to fill the emotional and cognitive gap helping people make peace with both fortune and misfortune.