WORKING FOR THE SYSTEM: MOTIVATED DEFENSE OF MERITOCRATIC BELIEFS
WORKING FOR THE SYSTEM: MOTIVATED DEFENSE OF MERITOCRATIC BELIEFS
复制标题
DOI：
10.1521/soco.2011.29.3.322
复制
发表时间：
2011-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Pohl, Michelle J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ledgerwood, Alison;Mandisodza, Anesu N.;Pohl, Michelle J.
将对精英统治的广泛信仰概念化为一个系统辩护的案例，我们研究了为社会现状辩护的愿望如何激发对努力工作导致成功这一概念的认知和行为辩护。实验1表明，当相同的证据得出支持（vs.挑战）美国社会中努力工作与成功之间联系的结论时，参与者会客观地认为这些证据的质量更好，而且在系统受到威胁后，这种支持精英主义的判断偏见会增加。实验2测试了行为的一个矛盾含义：当参与者被告知任务的成功是由于运气（相对于努力）时，他们会更加努力地为系统辩护，但只有当任务被认为与系统相关时。在实验3中，这种模式甚至出现在那些没有明确支持精英主义个人信仰的参与者身上。综上所述，这些结果表明，精英主义信仰有助于为社会制度辩护，并阐明了用于捍卫这种信仰的认知和行为机制。
Conceptualizing the widespread belief in meritocracy as a case of system justification, we examined how the desire to justify the societal status quo motivates cognitive and behavioral defense of the notion that hard work leads to success. Experiment 1 demonstrated that participants judged objectively equivalent evidence as better in quality when it led to a conclusion that supported (vs. challenged) a link between hard work and success in American society, and that this pro-meritocracy bias in judgment increased following system threat. Experiment 2 tested a paradoxical implication for behavior: Participants defended the system by working harder when they were told that success on the task was due to luck (vs. effort), but only when the task was perceived to be system-relevant. In Experiment 3, this pattern replicated even for participants who did not explicitly endorse a personal belief in meritocracy. Taken together, these results suggest that meritocratic beliefs serve to justify the social system and elucidate the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms used to defend such beliefs.