Spreading Rationalization: Increased Support for Large-Scale and Small-Scale Social Systems Following System Threat

Wakslak, Cheryl J.; Jost, John T.; Bauer, Patrick

doi:10.1521/soco.2011.29.3.288

Cited by 46 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…We used a French translated version from Wakslak et al (2011) adaptation of Kay and Jost's (2003) scale for a high school population. We added a ninth item to tap the meritocracy dimension of the scale (see below).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Belief in school meritocracy as a system-justifying tool for low status students

et al. 2015

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The belief that, in school, success only depends on will and hard work is widespread in Western societies despite evidence showing that several factors other than merit explain school success, including group belonging (e.g., social class, gender). In the present paper, we argue that because merit is the only track for low status students to reach upward mobility, Belief in School Meritocracy (BSM) is a particularly useful system-justifying tool to help them perceive their place in society as being deserved. Consequently, for low status students (but not high status students), this belief should be related to more general system-justifying beliefs (Study 1). Moreover, low status students should be particularly prone to endorsing this belief when their place within a system on which they strongly depend to acquire status is challenged (Study 2). In Study 1, high status (boys and high SES) were compared to low status (girls and low SES) high school students. Results indicated that BSM was related to system-justifying beliefs only for low SES students and for girls, but not for high SES students or for boys. In Study 2, university students were exposed (or not) to information about an important selection process that occurs at the university, depending on the condition. Their subjective status was assessed. Although such a confrontation reduced BSM for high subjective SES students, it tended to enhance it for low subjective SES students. Results are discussed in terms of system justification motives and the palliative function meritocratic ideology may play for low status students.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Belief in school meritocracy as a system-justifying tool for low status students

et al. 2015

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“…Wakslak et al (2011) have argued that once a system justification motive has been activated via system threat, individuals may aim to justify the system at different levels, from microscale systems such as families and friendship cliques to larger-scale systems such as national economies. Their results suggest that individuals may defend multiple social systems even when only one system has been threatened, an effect they call spreading rationalization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of national wealth and skill influence pay expectations: replicating global hierarchy on a microscale

Maitner

DeCoster

2015

Front. Psychol.

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In highly multicultural societies, the economic status hierarchy may come to mimic the hierarchy of global wealth, reinforcing social inequality by tying pay scales to national wealth. We investigated how nationality influences expectations of payment in the UAE. Participants reported how much they expected people to be paid and how much skill they were perceived to have by nationality. They also reported their perceptions of the national wealth of different countries. Participants generally expected Westerners to be paid more than Arabs, who would be paid more than Sub-Saharan Africans and Asians. Expectations about payment in private sector employment were driven by both actual and stereotyped differences in national wealth and skill, with non-Gulf Cooperation Council Arabs most likely to see national wealth as a factor explaining the economic hierarchy. These results suggest that people expect payment to be tied to national wealth, reflecting the global hierarchy on a microscale.

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“…It should be noted that this reference to the motive to see parts of the status quo as ''natural'' goes back to the original Jost and Banaji (1994) work, as well as having resonances in recent views about injunctification, the idea that ''people may be motivated to view the status quo, even if unfair, as the most desirable state of affairs'' (Kay et al, 2009, p. 421). Additionally, Wakslak, Jost and Bauer (2011) found that critiques of one part of the social system caused people to bolster other parts of the social system. In reference to that study, Jost et al (2015) suggest that ''a threat to the legitimacy or stability of one aspect of the social system stimulates defensive responding on behalf of other parts of the system'' (p. 330).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neither Fair nor Unchangeable But Part of the Natural Order: Orientations Towards Inequality in the Face of Criticism of the Economic System

Becker

Sparks

2016

Soc Just Res

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The magnitude of climate change threats to life on the planet is not matched by the level of current mitigation strategies. To contribute to our understanding of inaction in the face of climate change, the reported study draws upon the pro status quo motivations encapsulated within System Justification Theory. In an online questionnaire study, participants (N = 136) initially completed a measure of General System Justification. Participants in a ''System-critical'' condition were then exposed to information linking environmental problems to the current economic system; participants in a Control condition were exposed to information unrelated to either environmental problems or the economic system. A measure of Economic System Justification was subsequently administered. Regressions of Economic System Justification revealed interactions between General System Justification and Information Type: higher general system justifiers in the Systemcritical condition rated the economic system as less fair than did their counterparts in the Control condition. However, they also indicated inequality as more natural than did their counterparts in the Control condition. The groups did not differ in terms of beliefs about the economic system being open to change. The results are discussed in terms of how reassurance about the maintenance of the status quo may be bolstered by recourse to beliefs in a natural order.

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Spreading Rationalization: Increased Support for Large-Scale and Small-Scale Social Systems Following System Threat

Cited by 46 publications

References 38 publications

Belief in school meritocracy as a system-justifying tool for low status students

Belief in school meritocracy as a system-justifying tool for low status students

Perceptions of national wealth and skill influence pay expectations: replicating global hierarchy on a microscale

Neither Fair nor Unchangeable But Part of the Natural Order: Orientations Towards Inequality in the Face of Criticism of the Economic System

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