Dynamic Cognitive and Motivational Properties of System Justification

这个项目的目的是调查人类对针对现有社会制度的威胁的反应。对现状的威胁可能是直接的，就像美国系统在9/11袭击时一样，也可能是间接的，比如当它的缺陷被暴露出来时，比如卡特里娜飓风的后果。这种威胁往往会激起负面影响，并激励人们捍卫和支持社会制度。这种防御性反应有助于重新建立积极的情感，但它可能会产生意想不到的、有时甚至是有害的后果。制度辩护指的是仅仅因为现状的存在就捍卫和维持现状的心理过程，它与越来越多的刻板印象、对受害者的指责和对变革的抵制有关。对系统的威胁引发并强调了对系统正当性的反应，它们可以帮助维持一种不完美但已确立的状态。三项实验研究将检验系统正当性的认知动机基础。在研究1中，调查人员将确定系统的合理性是否是一个有动机的、以目标为导向的过程。如果当系统受到威胁时，系统的正当性目标确实被激活，那么恢复系统合法性的动机应该会推动行为，直到它实现。只要可以通过各种手段达到目的，这些手段就应该是可以替代的。虽然系统威胁应导致参与者体验不适感，但系统合理性的目标可以通过肯定系统的几个积极特征中的任何一个来实现，从而恢复积极的影响。在研究2中，研究人员将通过观察系统理由目标已经被系统威胁激活的人与目标没有被激活的人相比，是否更有可能在目标被中断后实现目标，从而解决目标恢复的动机属性。在研究3中，研究人员将通过比较高社会经济地位参与者和低社会经济地位参与者对系统威胁的反应，来确定系统合理性是否是一个有别于自我提升和内部偏袒的目标。这个假设是，自我肯定和群体肯定作为确认社会制度价值的途径是不可替代的，因此肯定自己或一个人的群体不应该使制度正当化目标失效--除非一个人的群体被视为该制度的高度代表。这项研究将促进科学培训、教学和学习，因为本科生和研究生将参与研究的所有阶段。与以前的工作一样，PI将与不同的学生和合作者密切合作。研究成果将广泛传播给公众和科学受众。

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.