Rubin and Peplau's Just World Scale is based on the belief that a just world is a unidimensional construct in which individual beliefs are polarized according to immanent justice or ultimate justice. To investigate the effect of personal style on just world view, 109 male and female college students (who previously had completed the Just World Scale) completed a 22-item questionnaire assessing their optimism for the future; they were first made aware of either the relatively privileged or deprived aspects of their present status. An analysis of the results showed that subjects who scored high on the Just World Scale generalized their present status into the future in order to maintain their belief in immanent justice. Subjects who scored low on the Just World Scale responded to injustice from an ultimate justice perspective where present privilege or deprivation was expected to be compensated for in the future. These findings suggest that the Just World Scale may be more accurately viewed as a measure of the defensive styles people use for protecting their belief in a just world than as a measure of commitment to the belief. (Author/BL)