The Role of Income in System Justification
Background. System justification theory asserts that people’s motivation to defend, justify, and maintain the status quo depends on their socio-economic status. At the same time practically nothing is known about the mediators for the relationship between a person’s income and his adherence to syst...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
2023-03-01
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Series: | Psychology in Russia: State of Art |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://psychologyinrussia.com/volumes/index.php?article=10303 |
Summary: | Background. System justification theory asserts that people’s motivation to defend, justify, and maintain the status quo depends on their socio-economic status. At the same time practically nothing is known about the mediators for the
relationship between a person’s income and his adherence to system justification.
Objective. The aim of this study was to clarify the role of income in motivating
an individual to justify the system, taking into account as potential mediators of
this relationship his sense of control over life and level of life satisfaction.
Design. In an online study (N = 410), a double sequential mediation model
was tested, with an individual’s income as an independent variable, his/her system justification as a dependent variable, and his/her perceived control over life
and level of life satisfaction as mediators. The impact of education was controlled
by inserting it into the model as a covariate.
Results. The results demonstrated that people with low incomes justify the
system more than people with high incomes do. At the same time, there was a
positive indirect effect of income on system justification, indicating that, compared to people with low incomes, those with high incomes had a more pronounced sense of control over their lives, which contributed to an increase in
their level of life satisfaction, and was positively associated with justification of
the status quo.
Conclusion. The results are discussed in terms of differences in the palliative
function of system justification for individuals of different socio-economic status. |
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ISSN: | 2074-6857 2307-2202 |