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System justification: Experimental evidence, its contextual nature, and implications for social change
Author(s) -
Friesen Justin P.,
Laurin Kristin,
Shepherd Steven,
Gaucher Danielle,
Kay Aaron C.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12278
Subject(s) - system justification , status quo , ignorance , legitimacy , social psychology , context (archaeology) , psychology , extant taxon , status quo bias , positive economics , resistance (ecology) , social influence , political science , law , politics , ideology , economics , paleontology , ecology , evolutionary biology , biology
We review conceptual and empirical contributions to system justification theory over the last fifteen years, emphasizing the importance of an experimental approach and consideration of context. First, we review the indirect evidence of the system justification motive via complimentary stereotyping. Second, we describe injunctification as direct evidence of a tendency to view the extant status quo (the way things are) as the way things should be. Third, we elaborate on system justification's contextual nature and the circumstances, such as threat, dependence, inescapability, and system confidence, which are likely to elicit defensive bolstering of the status quo and motivated ignorance of critical social issues. Fourth, we describe how system justification theory can increase our understanding of both resistance to and acceptance of social change, as a change moves from proposed, to imminent, to established. Finally, we discuss how threatened systems shore up their authority by co‐opting legitimacy from other sources, such as governments that draw on religious concepts, and the role of institutional‐level factors in perpetuating the status quo.