There are certain universal statements for good reason, such as, “Whatever goes around usually comes around.” So if you’re generally nice to people, complete strangers or close acquaintances, then good fortune will invariably shine your way, right?
Does that also mean if you don’t help those in need, don’t bother doing favours, then your life is leading towards doom and gloom.
These are the usual expectations which makes sense when it comes to a variety of social situations, where individuals will return favours, especially when our reputation comes into question.
But beyond just helping others who are in need, we also expect the almighty universe, the unknown, the uncontrollable, Mr Fate, to comply to the same rules.
What we expect is to somehow get rewarded, once we do good unconditional work without being asked.
There are many who are wanting some type of return from the mighty universe, once they invest their time and effort into doing some type of good deed for others in need.
Good Deeds Done For Free
We have been conditioned to believe any good deed we do, we’ll eventually be rewarded for it, and all bad deeds, intentional or not, are usually punished.
If you help a parent or someone elderly do something, the immediate return is a hug, or a nice meal for your time.
Conversely, if you continuously slam the front door on everyone’s face, you can expect some type of retribution for being bad.
What this is referred to is objective pattern recognition. At times, we’re also forced to believe in comeuppance.
This is when good things happen to bad people, or bad things happen to good people.
For Good Or Bad
We think and are wanting to believe that performing hard work and expressing kindness will eventually pay off, that the world isn’t random but in a set programmed of reward.
So, we consciously maintain our belief we live in a fair justified balanced world byh setting up various defence mechanisms.
If something bad ever happens to an individual, we may ultimately blame the victim, or we expect something good to happen to us to balance out the scale.
What we do is shape these perceptions in a method of drawing direct connections, between expecting bad outcomes from previously bad deeds.
What happens is we apparently overgeneralize this association and treat or blame the moral balance as a fundamental principle, and the fault of the universe. What we implicitly believe in is karma.
Can These Beliefs Be Altered And Formed
What we then attempt is to alter “karma,” to hopefully form or influence what we ultimately want.
There are examples where a group of individuals were asked to participate in discussing their ongoing personal situations, and what they expected as a specific desired outcome.
These involved personal issues such as: admission to a particular post secondary school, outcome of a legal dispute, or attempting to get pregnant.
Testing For Belief
So a set of two test subject groups were asked to describe a particular daily routine they do.
The first group was asked to perform an additional task without getting paid, just 62% percent volunteered, while the second group was told that they were to receive money for the additional test, there were 89% percent who volunteered.
Charitable Belief System
The subjects who were asked to write about a hopeful desired outcome in their life, overall donated more money to charity once when they were finished, proving that they were capable of good deeds, such as donating money.
The other test group who were asked to write about a personal preference, which they had absolute no control or expectations over, donated less to charity since they had less faith in fate, or not believed in the unknown.
In another experiment, the subjects were asked how much control they had in getting the “job” of their dreams, or if getting a desired job that they wanted was completely out of their hands.
The payment, their name would be entered into a $100 lottery. 47% percent of the participants indicated that a job search was within their control, by they doing diligent research and being qualified, while 53% percent indicated that getting hired was completely out of their control.
The participants from both groups were then asked how much of the $100 they would donate to charity if they got that job. For those who indicated finding a job was within their control, averaged $22 that they would donate, while those who said it was up to the universe to help them find a job, averaged $35. The later group, who would donate more, placed more faith in the unknown, and also felt that donating more could influence this.
Faith In The Unknown
So just to solidify this supernatural concept which is karma, the researchers performed a final experiment. Once completed, they found that the subjects wrote an essay hoping for a desired outcome, used more words such as: fate, hope, karma, and luck, a lot more frequently.
What the ultimate results of these various experiments demonstrated is that there’s a certain social benefit in believing in the magic, that things happen for a reason, which is usually out of their control.
There’s an implicit belief that most believe that “Karma,” for instance, keeps us on better behaviour, even if there’s no one looking or listening. They believe that the universe or a greater power is always forever lurking, and that it also never forgets a debt.