Based on considerable evidence, Janoff-Bulman (1989) has concluded that the typical assumptive world of the modern American citizen includes at least three broad, common beliefs. First, people regard the world as benevolent, and this includes a tendency to think of oneself as invulnerable – ’It can’t happen to me’. Second, people have some notion of fairness and justice, and they tend to believe that in the real world people get what the deserve. Third, people have a sense of positive self-worth, inluding the assumption that they deserve individually to have good things happen to them.”
Baumeister: ’Meanings of Life’, (1991) s 234.