Why Do People from Low‐Status Groups Support Class Systems that Disadvantage Them? A Test of Two Mainstream Explanations in Malaysia and Australia

The System Justification Conundrum: Re-Examining the Cognitive Dissonance Basis for System Justification

“…These examples all appear to be rooted in personal and/or group interests and, taking them into account, Kay et al's evidence seems to suggest that making personal and group interests salient increases people's personal and group interests as much as their system dependence. Thus, Kay et al's (2009) findings, as with van der Toorn et al's (2015), seem to be consistent with emerging evidence that system justification can go hand in hand with personal and group interests (e.g., Owuamalam et al, 2016, in press) rather than being in opposition to them or only coming to the fore when these interests are weak.…”

The Social Psychology of the Great Recession and Social Class Divides

“…Among the beliefs are those that low-status jobholders hold about themselves (Volpato et al, 2017). Disadvantaged group identity salience and intensity moderates system-justification ideologies (Owuamalam, Rubin, Spears, & Weerabangsa, 2017). Cultural practices of lower SES individuals correlate with lower ingroup efficacy and political inactivity (Becker, Kraus, & Rheinschmidt-Same, 2017).…”

In This Together: Doing and Undoing Inequality and Social Class Divides

“…This selective attention and inattentional blindness is well documented in psychology. Blindness to inequality and its consequences is naturalized and becomes automatic through the influence of pervasive ideologies that claim that current economic arrangements are fair, that those with less are to blame for their circumstances, and that “you too can move up and be a winner.” In rationalizing and making sense of their actions, people continually shore up these ideologies and the associated blindness to inequality and its sources (see Durante et al., 2016; Owuamalam, Rubin, Spears, & Weerabangsa, ; Rodríguez‐Bailón et al., this volume; Volpato, Andrighetto, & Baldissarri, ). Everyday social interactions and institutional policies and practices reflect and further justify these ideas (e.g., Jury et al., ).…”

“…They are also novel in their analyses of how responses to the crisis differ by social class standing. The answers are fascinating and highly heuristic for future research (see Becker, Kraus, & Rheinschmidt, ; Owuamalam et al., ).…”

“…Another potential and related answer is on offer by Owuamalam et al. (): The system can be construed as source of oppression but, in a rapidly changing and modernizing world, it can also be a source of advancement. The system may work for me.…”