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Xu R, Ding Y, Guo Y, van Prooijen JW. System-justifying beliefs buffer against psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2024. [PMID: 38923576 DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024]
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a detrimental effect on people's mental health. Drawing on the palliative function of ideologies, we suggest that people rely on system-justifying beliefs to mitigate psychological distress during the pandemic. We conducted three studies with correlational and experimental designs to examine whether and how system-justifying beliefs can buffer against psychological distress during COVID-19, and whether this effect may vary across social classes. The results indicated that (a) system-justifying beliefs alleviated psychological distress during the pandemic, (b) personal control mediated this relationship and (c) this effect was consistent across all social classes. This study provides robust evidence for the palliative function of system-justifying beliefs during a massive global health crisis (i.e. COVID-19).
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronghua Xu
- School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Yi Ding
- School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Yongyu Guo
- School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Jan-Willem van Prooijen
- Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Department of Criminal law and Criminology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
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Badewi AA, Eid R, Laker B. Determinations of system justification versus psychological reactance consumer behaviours in online taboo markets. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & PEOPLE 2022. [DOI: 10.1108/itp-12-2018-0555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
PurposeThis research aims to understand the determinants of consumers' behaviour and motivations to buy taboo items online. Two theoretical lenses, theories of psychological reactance and system justification, are invoked to frame the role of online shopping in shaping consumer behaviour in taboo markets.Design/methodology/approachA naturalistic inquiry paradigm was used to test a sample of 34 Saudi women who were buying taboo products online.FindingsThe determinant of such behaviour is based on differences in understanding the ritual restrictions between people, their society and their country. The four principal attitudes towards restrictions are justifying, accepting, rejecting and reacting. These attitudes frame five motivations: satisfying the restriction, to be unique, but aligned with social norms; breaking social norms; aligning one's self-image to liberal societies; and joy in challenging legal restrictions. The motives for online shopping are justification/utilitarian, to accommodate other restrictions in going to local markets; and reactance hedonic, to break restrictions. These motivations create seven different patterns of online shopping behaviour.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature by presenting an alternative perspective on online shopping motivations for taboo products. Furthermore, this research calls for a new socio-psychological theory for understanding the role of technology in influencing consumer behaviour in restrictive societies.
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Kay AC, Gibbs WC. Inequality, Military Veteran Transitions, and Beyond: Compensatory Control Theory and Its Application to Real World Social Justice Problems. SOCIAL JUSTICE RESEARCH 2022; 35:56-61. [PMID: 35125645 PMCID: PMC8799957 DOI: 10.1007/s11211-021-00385-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/18/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Aaron C. Kay
- Fuqua School of Business and Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, USA
| | - W. Connor Gibbs
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
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Reiss S, Franchina V, Jutzi C, Willardt R, Jonas E. From anxiety to action-Experience of threat, emotional states, reactance, and action preferences in the early days of COVID-19 self-isolation in Germany and Austria. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0243193. [PMID: 33290398 PMCID: PMC7723254 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2020] [Accepted: 11/17/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted everyday life virtually everywhere in the world, enabling real-life research on threat-and-defense processes. In a survey conducted within the first days of implementing social distancing measures in Austria and Germany, we aimed to explore the pathways from threat perception to preferences of defense strategies. We found that anxiety, approach-related affect, and reactance were specifically elicited by motivational (vs. epistemic) discrepancies. In a second step, we tested the mediating effect of anxiety, approach-related affect, and reactance on preferences regarding personal-social and concrete-abstract defenses. Experiencing anxiety was related to interest in security-related actions, and approach-affect was related to both personal projects and social media use. Participants experiencing reactance were more inclined to pursue personal projects (personal-abstract) and less interested in security-related (personal-concrete) actions. They also showed marginally lower system justification (social-abstract). Additionally, we examined the relationship of loneliness with defense strategies, showing that loneliness was associated with lower system justification and security behaviors. The results suggest that individuals deal with threat in their own ways, mostly depending on affective state and motivational orientation: Anxiety was related to security, approach-state to action (both social and personal), reactance to derogation of the system and disregard for security, while loneliness was associated with inaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Reiss
- Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | | | - Chiara Jutzi
- Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
| | - Robin Willardt
- Department of Psychology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Eva Jonas
- Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
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Vargas-Salfate S. The role of personal control in the palliative function of system justification among indigenous and non-indigenous Peruvian students / El rol del control personal en la función paliativa de la justificación del sistema entre la población indígena y no indígena de estudiantes peruanos. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018. [DOI: 10.1080/02134748.2018.1537650] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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Friesen JP, Laurin K, Shepherd S, Gaucher D, Kay AC. System justification: Experimental evidence, its contextual nature, and implications for social change. BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018; 58:315-339. [PMID: 30229936 DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2018] [Revised: 08/14/2018] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
We review conceptual and empirical contributions to system justification theory over the last fifteen years, emphasizing the importance of an experimental approach and consideration of context. First, we review the indirect evidence of the system justification motive via complimentary stereotyping. Second, we describe injunctification as direct evidence of a tendency to view the extant status quo (the way things are) as the way things should be. Third, we elaborate on system justification's contextual nature and the circumstances, such as threat, dependence, inescapability, and system confidence, which are likely to elicit defensive bolstering of the status quo and motivated ignorance of critical social issues. Fourth, we describe how system justification theory can increase our understanding of both resistance to and acceptance of social change, as a change moves from proposed, to imminent, to established. Finally, we discuss how threatened systems shore up their authority by co-opting legitimacy from other sources, such as governments that draw on religious concepts, and the role of institutional-level factors in perpetuating the status quo.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Aaron C Kay
- Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
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Vargas-Salfate S, Paez D, Khan SS, Liu JH, Gil de Zúñiga H. System justification enhances well-being: A longitudinal analysis of the palliative function of system justification in 18 countries. BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018; 57:567-590. [DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2017] [Revised: 02/11/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Salvador Vargas-Salfate
- Faculty of Education and Social Sciences; Andres Bello University; Santiago Chile
- Department of Social Psychology and Methodology; University of the Basque Country; San Sebastián Spain
| | - Dario Paez
- Department of Social Psychology and Methodology; University of the Basque Country; San Sebastián Spain
| | | | - James H. Liu
- School of Psychology; Massey University; North Shore Auckland New Zealand
| | - Homero Gil de Zúñiga
- Media Innovation Lab; Department of Communication; University of Vienna; Austria
- Faculty of Communication and Literature; Diego Portales University; Santiago Chile
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Vargas-Salfate S, Paez D, Liu JH, Pratto F, Gil de Zúñiga H. A Comparison of Social Dominance Theory and System Justification: The Role of Social Status in 19 Nations. PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN 2018; 44:1060-1076. [DOI: 10.1177/0146167218757455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
This study tests specific competing hypotheses from social dominance theory/realistic conflict theory (RCT) versus system justification theory about the role of social status. In particular, it examines whether system justification belief and effects are stronger among people with low socioeconomic status, and in less socially developed and unequal nations than among better-off people and countries. A cross-national survey was carried out in 19 nations from the Americas, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Oceania using representative online samples ( N = 14,936, 50.15% women, Mage = 41.61 years). At the individual level, system justification beliefs, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, national identification, sociopolitical conservatism, sex, age, and social status were measured. At the national level, the human development index and the Gini index were used. Multilevel analyses performed indicated that results fit better with the social dominance/RCT approach, as system justification was higher in high-status and developed nations; further, associations between legitimizing ideologies and system justification were stronger among high-status people.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Dario Paez
- University of the Basque Country, San Sebastián, Spain
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Ma-Kellams C, Zhang EMF. Is There Such a Thing as “Ultimate” Meaning? A Review of Fluid versus Fixed Models of Different Forms of Human Striving. BASIC AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/01973533.2017.1361325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Greenaway KH, Storrs KR, Philipp MC, Louis WR, Hornsey MJ, Vohs KD. Loss of control stimulates approach motivation. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2014.10.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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