Dynamic Cognitive and Motivational Properties of System Justification

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The aim of this project is to investigate human responses to threats directed at existing social systems. Threats to the status quo may be direct, as when the American system was attacked on 9/11, or indirect, as when its faults are exposed, as in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Such threats tend to provoke negative affect and motivate people to defend and bolster the social system. This defensive response serves to reestablish positive affect, but it can have unanticipated and sometimes deleterious consequences. System justification, which refers to the psychological process whereby the status quo is defended and upheld simply because it exists, has been associated with increased stereotyping, victim-blaming, and resistance to change. System-justifying responses are elicited and accentuated by threats to the system, and they can help maintain an imperfect but established state. Three experimental studies will examine the cognitive-motivational basis of system justification. In Study 1, the investigators will determine whether system justification is a motivated, goal-oriented process. If the system justification goal is indeed activated when the system is threatened, the motivation to restore system legitimacy should drive behavior until it is achieved. Insofar as a goal can be attained through various means, these means should be substitutable. While system threat should lead participants to experience feelings of discomfort, the goal of system justification can be met by affirming any of several positive features of the system, thereby restoring positive affect. In Study 2, the investigators will address the motivational property of goal-resumption by observing whether people for whom the system justification goal has been activated by system threat are more likely to fulfill the goal after it has been interrupted, in comparison with people for whom the goal has not been activated. In Study 3, the investigators will determine whether system justification is a goal that is distinct from self-enhancement and ingroup favoritism by comparing responses of high vs. low socio-economic status participants to system threat. The hypothesis is that self- affirmation and group-affirmation are not substitutable as routes to affirming the value of the social system, so that affirming oneself or one's group should not deactivate the system justification goal--unless one's group is seen as highly representative of the system. This research will promote scientific training, teaching, and learning, because undergraduate and graduate students will be involved in all phases of the research. As in previous work, the PI will work closely with a diverse group of students and collaborators. The research results will be disseminated widely to a public and scientific audience.