Abstract
People’s desired levels of inequality are informed by the levels of inequality they perceive to exist. Perceived economic inequality is used as a reference point in determining people’s ideal level of inequality. However, recent research has suggested that the strength of this relationship depends on people’s endorsement of system-justifying beliefs. The current article extends this body of research by replicating these findings across 41 countries (N = 42,078), showing the impact of system-justifying beliefs at both the individual and the societal levels. We conducted a multilevel analysis and found that the higher the endorsement of equality of opportunity beliefs—both at the individual and the societal levels—and meritocratic beliefs—at the individual level—the stronger the relationship between perceived and ideal economic inequality. These findings are in support of a motivated account of the perceived legitimacy of economic inequality.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 991-1001 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Social Psychological and Personality Science |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2019 |
Funding
The authors want to thank Tom Wilderjans and Ruthie Pliskin for insightful comments in earlier versions of this article. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was funded thanks to the doctoral scholarship given to the first author COLCIENCIAS-679 (Colombia) and the PSI2016-78839-P MINECO (Spain) grant given to third and fourth authors.
Keywords
- economic inequality
- legitimacy
- perceptions of inequality
- societal beliefs
- system justifying beliefs
