System justification among the disadvantaged : Do disadvantaged students display stronger justification of the governmental-, educational-, and university system than the advantaged?

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine the counterintuitive effect of enhanced system justification among the disadvantaged in another context, namely the context of the German society. The implementation of this research issue was done through an experimental method upon students of the University of Konstanz,ossiib which were either brought in a relative state of advantage or a relative state of disadvantage. The amount of system justification was measured on three levels, the governmental system, the educational system and the university system. Two Hypotheses drawn on the first two levels concerned the counterintuitive effect of enhanced system justification among the disadvantaged. One Hypothesis drawn on the level of the university system concerned traditional theories stressing group and self interest. Emphasizing the first two hypotheses the results showed that the effect of enhanced system justification among the disadvantaged could only be found on the level of the governmental system when the self identification with that system was high. The third hypothesis, derived from traditional theories stressing group and self interest could be confirmed even without the boundary condition of high self identification. It was also shown that meritocratic beliefs and the factor of volition did not play an important role in generating the effect of enhanced system justification.