The society-supporting self: System justification and cultural worldview defense as different forms of self-regulation

Abstract

Justifying social systems and defending cultural worldviews may seem to resemble the same human need to protect what is known and predictable. The current paper would like to argue that these society-supporting tendencies concern two different forms of self-regulation: the need for control and the need for meaning. Results show higher levels of system justification when participants were lacking control than when they had to think about death or about a control topic. Simultaneously, participants showed stronger worldview defense reactions when they thought about their own death, compared to those experiencing low control. This suggests that system justification may be used to compensate a loss of personal control, while cultural worldviews protect the person from existential anxiety.

The power of we: Evidence for group-based control

“…The present findings also speak to previous research by Kay and colleagues (Kay et al, 2008(Kay et al, , 2009(Kay et al, , 2010 as well as Rutjens and Loseman (2010). These authors have proposed that threat to personal control may elicit tendencies towards indiscriminate system justification and approval of external agents of control, such as God.…”

“…Rutjens and Loseman (2010) conceptually replicated the former finding by showing that the induction of low self-control capacity also increased tendencies toward system justification. As an explanation of their findings these authors suggest that people need to shield themselves from the idea that the world is an unpredictable and chaotic place which might be elicited by perceptions of low personal control.…”

“…Probably, the effects of control threat (Fritsche et al, 2008;Kay et al, 2008Kay et al, , 2009Kay et al, , 2010Rutjens & Loseman, 2010) are driven by both the motivation to control the world through the self and the motivation to render the world predictable and non-chaotic (see Pittman, 1998). This is because in everyday life perceptions of lacking control have the potential to increase both uncertainty and threat to control.…”

Not All Ideologies are Created Equal: Epistemic, Existential, and Relational Needs Predict System-Justifying Attitudes

“…Some evidence exists to support this assumption (e.g., Jost et al, 2003Jost et al, , 2007Jost et al, , 2009Rutjens & Loseman, 2010;Thórisdóttir & Jost, 2011;Ullrich & Cohrs, 2007). However, more research is needed to clarify the extent to which dispositional and situational variables produce the same effects, as well as potential interactions between chronic dispositions and situational manipulations.…”

“…However, it is possible that one type of need is more strongly related to system justification than the others (e.g., see Rutjens & Loseman, 2010) or that the effects of certain needs on system justification are mediated by others (e.g., see Thórisdóttir & Jost, 2011). Similarly, it is unclear whether epistemic, existential, and relational needs operate in a compensatory or combinatory (i.e., additive) manner.…”