“We Look (and Feel) Better Through System-Justifying Lenses”: System-Justifying Beliefs Attenuate the Well-Being Gap Between the Advantaged and Disadvantaged by Reducing Perceptions of Discrimination

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (9) ◽  
pp. 1391-1408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquín Bahamondes ◽  
Chris G. Sibley ◽  
Danny Osborne
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Well Being ◽  
System Justification ◽  
High Status ◽  
Specific System ◽  
Mediated Moderation ◽  
System Justification Theory ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

Low-status groups report lower levels of well-being than do high-status groups. Although system justification theory posits that the endorsement of system-justifying beliefs should decrease this well-being gap, the underlying mechanisms responsible for this hypothesized palliative effect have evaded empirical scrutiny. We address this oversight by arguing that system-justifying beliefs confer palliative benefits upon low-status groups by decreasing perceptions of group-based discrimination. Using nationally representative data from New Zealand ( N = 12,959), we demonstrate that ethnic minorities (Study 1a) and women (Study 1b) generally report lower levels of well-being than do New Zealand Europeans and men, respectively. Nevertheless, as hypothesized, these differences were mitigated by the endorsement of ethnic- and gender-specific system justification, respectively. Mediated moderation analyses further revealed that part of the palliative effects of system justification occurred via reductions in perceived group-based discrimination. The implications of these findings for intergroup relations are discussed.

System Justification or Social Dominance? A Multilevel Test of the Ideological Motivators of Perceived Discrimination

2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722110360
Author(s):  
Joaquín Bahamondes ◽  
Chris G. Sibley ◽  
Danny Osborne
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Perceived Discrimination ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
System Justification ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Reverse Discrimination ◽  
High Status ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Group Members

Although system-justifying beliefs often mitigate perceptions of discrimination, status-based asymmetries in the ideological motivators of perceived discrimination are unknown. Because the content and societal implications of discrimination claims are status-dependant, social dominance orientation (SDO) should motivate perceptions of (reverse) discrimination among members of high-status groups, whereas system justification should motivate the minimization of perceived discrimination among the disadvantaged. We tested these hypotheses using multilevel regressions among a nationwide random sample of New Zealand Europeans ( n = 29,169) and ethnic minorities ( n = 5,118). As hypothesized, group-based dominance correlated positively with perceived (reverse) discrimination among ethnic-majority group members, whereas system justification correlated negatively with perceived discrimination among the disadvantaged. Furthermore, the proportion of minorities within the region strengthened the victimizing effects of SDO-Dominance, but not SDO-Egalitarianism, among the advantaged. Together, these results reveal status-based asymmetries in the motives underlying perceptions of discrimination and identify a key contextual moderator of this association.

Body weight satisfaction among New Zealand adolescents: findings from a national survey

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Wood ◽  
Jennifer Utter ◽  
Elizabeth Robinson ◽  
Shanthi Ameratunga ◽  
Theresa Fleming ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Body Dissatisfaction ◽  
Body Satisfaction ◽  
Well Being ◽  
School Students ◽  
Weight Satisfaction ◽  
Zealand Secondary School ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Body dissatisfaction has been extensively studied but, recently, the importance of body satisfaction and its attributing factors has received significant recognition. Also, there is an increasing awareness of the need for research examining body dissatisfaction and satisfaction in youth other than North American females. Thus, the current research examined the prevalence of, and the individual, social, and familial factors associated with, body-weight satisfaction among New Zealand male and female adolescents (n=9107). Data were analysed from Youth ’07, a nationally representative survey of New Zealand secondary school students. Overall, half of students were happy with their weight, with significantly more males than females reporting body-weight satisfaction. Students happiest with their weight were most likely to report healthy and supportive social and family environments, as well as higher levels of well-being. These findings are consistent with a growing body of research that suggests creating positive peer and family environments may lead to better developmental outcomes, such as body satisfaction, and also higher levels of well-being.

scholarly journals Obstacles to Birth Surname Retention Upon Marriage: How Do Hostile Sexism and System Justification Predict Support for Marital Surname Change Among Women?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Chayinska ◽  
Özden Melis Uluğ ◽  
Nevin Solak ◽  
Betül Kanık ◽  
Burcu Çuvaş
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Ambivalent Sexism ◽  
Benevolent Sexism ◽  
System Justification ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Hostile Sexism ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
System Justification Theory ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

Despite the ongoing shift in societal norms and gender-discriminatory practices toward more equality, many heterosexual women worldwide, including in many Western societies, choose to replace their birth surname with the family name of their spouse upon marriage. Previous research has demonstrated that the adherence to sexist ideologies (i.e., a system of discriminatory gender-based beliefs) among women is associated with their greater endorsement of practices and policies that maintain gender inequality. By integrating the ideas from the system justification theory and the ambivalent sexism theory, we proposed that the more women adhere to hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs, the more likely they would be to justify existing gender relations in society, which in turn, would positively predict their support for traditional, husband-centered marital surname change. We further argued that hostile (as compared to benevolent) sexism could act as a particularly strong direct predictor of the support for marital surname change among women. We tested these possibilities across three cross-sectional studies conducted among women in Turkey (Study 1, N=118, self-identified feminist women; Study 2, N=131, female students) and the United States (Study 3, N=140, female students). Results of Studies 1 and 3 revealed that higher adherence to hostile (but not benevolent) sexism was associated with higher support for marital surname change indirectly through higher gender-based system justification. In Study 2, the hypothesized full mediation was not observed. Consistent with our predictions, in all three studies, hostile (but not benevolent) sexism was found to be a direct positive predictor of the support for marital surname change among women. We discuss the role of dominant ideologies surrounding marriage and inegalitarian naming conventions in different cultures as obstacles to women’s birth surname retention upon marriage.

scholarly journals Social Cognition and Democracy: The Relationship Between System Justification, Just World Beliefs, Authoritarianism, Need for Closure, and Need for Cognition in Hungary

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Kelemen ◽  
Zsolt Péter Szabó ◽  
Noémi Zsuzsanna Mészáros ◽  
János László ◽  
Josef P. Forgas
Keyword(s):  
Need For Cognition ◽  
System Justification ◽  
Need For Closure ◽  
Just World Beliefs ◽  
Just World ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
System Justification Theory ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Political Variables

This research was aimed at examining just-world beliefs, system justification, authoritarianism, and cognitive style in a nationally representative sample (N = 1000) in Hungary, and at relating these phenomena to various demographic and political variables to find out whether the findings in Hungary would differ from its Western counterparts. According to system justification theory, there is a psychological motive to defend and justify the status quo. This theory has been tested several times in North American and Western European samples. The core finding of our study was that Hungarian people, unlike people in Western democracies, did not justify the existing establishment. There was strong pessimism with regard to the idea that the system serves the interests of the people. Members of disadvantaged groups (people with low economic income and/or far right political preference) strongly rejected the system. System justification beliefs were moderately related to just world beliefs, and there was a significant relationship between some aspects of need for closure (need for order, discomfort with ambiguity, and closed-mindedness) and authoritarian beliefs. Need for cognition was only related to one aspect of need for closure: closed-mindedness. The voters of right-wing parties did not display higher levels of authoritarianism than the voters of the left social-democrat party. The role of demographic and political variables, limitations, and possible developments of this research are discussed.

scholarly journals System Justification theory: a new perspective on the problem of inequality

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-141
Author(s):  
E.R. Agadullina ◽  
A.A. Ivanov ◽  
I.R. Sarieva ◽  
I.S. Prusova
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
System Justification ◽  
High Status ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
System Justification Theory ◽  
The Core ◽  
New Perspective

This article outlines the concept of system justification proposed by J. Jost and M. Banaji. Motivational basis of system justification as well as the core assumption that low-status individuals tend to justify the existing system more than high-status individuals are described thoroughly. The factors that enhance system justification motivation as well as the relations between system justification and behavioral patterns that preserve social inequality are described in specific paragraphs.

scholarly journals Local crime and early marriage: Evidence from India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sudipa Sarkar
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Early Marriage ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
And Gender ◽  
High Crime ◽  
Age Of Marriage ◽  
The Relationship

This paper analyses whether living in a locality with high crime against women affects the probability of early marriage—that is, marriage before the legal age of marriage of girls. We hypothesize that parents who perceive themselves to live in a high-crime locality would marry their daughters off at an early age to protect the chastity of their daughters from any sexual violence. However, there would be no similar effect of perceived crime in the locality on the marriage of sons. Using a nationally representative longitudinal data set and tackling the potential endogeneity of local crime rates, we find evidence to support our hypothesis. The results show that perceived crime against women in the locality significantly increases the likelihood of early marriage of girls, while there is no such effect on boys of comparable age group. We also find no such effect of gender-neutral crimes (such as theft and robbery) on the likelihood of early marriage of girls. Moreover, we find that the relationship holds only in conservative households where the purdah system is practised, and also in the northern region of India, where patriarchal culture and gender norms are stronger than in the southern region. These findings are relevant as under-age marriage has negative consequences for the well-being of women in terms of health, education, post-marital agency, and future economic participation.

scholarly journals “The New State That We Are Building”: Authoritarianism and System-Justification in an Illiberal Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lönnqvist ◽  
Zsolt Péter Szabó ◽  
László Kelemen
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
System Justification ◽  
High Status ◽  
Strong Version ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Authoritarian Personality ◽  
System Justification Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes ◽  
Representative Samples

The authoritarian personality is characterized by unquestionining obedience and respect to authority. System justification theory (SJT) argues that people are motivated to defend, bolster, and justify aspects of existing social, economic, and political systems. Commitment to the status quo is also a key characteristic of the authoritarian personality. It can be argued that the social context matters for how an underlying latent authoritarian character is expressed. This means that authoritarian regimes could be expected to lead to increased authoritarianism and stronger system-justification. We investigated this hypothesis in two representative samples of Hungarians, collected before (2010) and after (2018) 8 years of Fidesz’ rule (N = 1,000 in both samples). Moreover, the strong version of SJT argues that members of disadvantaged groups are likely to experience the most cognitive dissonance and that the need to reduce this dissonance makes them the most supportive of the status quo. This argument dovetails nicely with claims made by the political opposition to Fidesz, according to which Fidesz is especially popular among low-status members of society. We found that measures assessing authoritarian tendencies did not change between 2010 and 2018. However, more specific beliefs and attitudes did change, and these effects were especially pronounced among Fidesz supporters. Their belief in a just world and a just system has grown stronger, while their attitudes toward migrants had hardened. Low status was associated with lower levels of system-justifying ideologies. However, low status Fidesz voters justified the system more than high status opposition voters in 2018, lending some support for the strong version of SJT. Our results suggest that beliefs and attitudes of Hungarians have changed between 2010 and 2018, and that political leadership played a crucial role in this.

System Justification and Perceptions of Group-Based Discrimination: Investigating the Temporal Order of the Ideologically Motivated Minimization (or Exaggeration) of Discrimination Across Low- and High-Status Groups

2020 ◽  
pp. 194855062092945
Author(s):  
Joaquín Bahamondes ◽  
Chris G. Sibley ◽  
Danny Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
System Justification ◽  
High Status ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Temporal Ordering

Believing that social systems are fair confers palliative benefits via different mechanisms. Although the minimization of group-based discrimination plays a central role in this process, the direction of this association is contested. We address this debate by using eight waves of nationally representative longitudinal panel data to model the temporal ordering of system justification (SJ) and perceptions of group-based discrimination across ethnic minorities ( n = 7,159) and Whites ( n = 18,140). Consistent with SJ theory and the original status-legitimacy hypothesis, system-justifying beliefs precede (and reduce) perceptions of group-based discrimination among minorities, whereas the corresponding association is positive and bidirectional for members of the ethnic majority group. These results are the first to demonstrate important asymmetries in both the direction and temporal ordering of SJ and perceptions of group-based discrimination across ethnic minority and majority populations.

scholarly journals Cohort Differences in Daily Life: Older Adults Have Higher Affect Variability Than 18 Years Ago

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 1036-1036
Author(s):  
Johanna Drewelies ◽  
Rachel Koffer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Secular Trends ◽  
Cohort Differences ◽  
Individual Functioning ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Practical Implications

Abstract Lifespan psychological and life course sociological perspectives have long acknowledged that individual functioning is shaped by historical and socio-cultural contexts. Secular increases favoring later-born cohorts are widely documented for general well-being (among older adults). However, little is known about secular trends in short-term fluctuations in daily affective well-being and whether historical changes have occurred in young, middle-aged, and older adults alike. To examine these questions, we compared data from two independent national samples of the NSDE survey obtained 18 years apart (1995/96 vs. 2013/14) and identified case-matched cohorts (per cohort, n = 782, aged = 23–75 years) based on age and gender. We additionally examine the role of economic and health resources for cohort differences in affective variability. Results revealed that later-born cohorts report higher variability in daily negative affect than did those 18 years ago. In contrast, no cohort differences emerged in variability in daily positive affect. We conclude from our national US sample that secular trends in affect variability do not generalize unanimously to different timescales across adulthood. We discuss possible underlying mechanisms and practical implications.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document