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Social Indicators Research
Published in: Social Indicators Research 1/2013

01-08-2013

The Palliative Function of System Justification: Concurrent Benefits Versus Longer-Term Costs to Wellbeing

Authors: Jessica F. Harding, Chris G. Sibley

Published in: Social Indicators Research | Issue 1/2013

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Abstract

We examined the extent to which system justification buffered the negative effect of retrospective experiences of active harm from general sources in society on life satisfaction during the same assessment period, and prospectively 1 year later. Results from a nationally representative sample indicated that the retrospective assessment of active harm and quality of life were uncorrelated for people who endorsed system justifying ideology (N = 6,518). Study 2 replicated the concurrent buffering effect of system justification on subjective wellbeing and demonstrated that the effect reversed over time. For people high in system justification beliefs, societal-level harm prospectively predicted lower life satisfaction 1 year later (N = 136 undergraduates). Perceiving the system as fair and legitimate in the face of harm from others in society has opposing short and longer-term effects on wellbeing. We argue that these opposing effects occur because although system justification trumps experiences of harm and buffers life satisfaction in the short-term; the resulting experience-belief conflict engenders a state of ideological dissonance that predicts negative psychological outcomes down the track.
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Footnotes
1
One reviewer noted that this difference may introduce a method bias to the study; however, prior research does not suggest response differences between postal and online surveys (Rowe et al. 2006; Pettit 2002).
 
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Metadata
Title
The Palliative Function of System Justification: Concurrent Benefits Versus Longer-Term Costs to Wellbeing
Authors
Jessica F. Harding
Chris G. Sibley
Publication date
01-08-2013
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Social Indicators Research / Issue 1/2013
Print ISSN: 0303-8300
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0921
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0101-1

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