TY - JOUR
T1 - Rejoinder to Rubin, Owuamalam, Spears, and Caricati (2023)
T2 - Ideology is not accuracy; identity is not everything; and the social identity model of social attitudes does not explain system justification, it presupposes it
AU - Jost, John T.
AU - Bertin, Jeannine Alana
AU - Javeed, Ali
AU - Liaquat, Usman
AU - Rivera Pichardo, Eduardo J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Mikey Biddlestone, Henry Biedron, Shahrzad Goudarzi, Daniela Goya-Tocchetto, Katie Mason, Sushmeena Parihar, Benjamin Saunders, and Matilde Tumino for a spirited, illuminating discussion of the target article and plans for our response to it.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 European Association of Social Psychology.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - This article rebuts arguments made by proponents of the Social Identity Model of Social Attitudes (SIMSA), especially the claim that needs for accuracy and a positively distinct social identity are sufficient to explain system justification by members of disadvantaged groups. There are many serious conceptual and empirical problems with SIMSA: (1) It treats system justification as the outcome of neutral, non-ideological processes, adopting a relativistic position about social injustice; (2) It conflates completely different concepts, such as (a) holding beliefs that favour an out-group vs. believing that one is a member of that group, and (b) recognising that status differences exist vs. believing that those differences are legitimate; (3) It is fatalistic, implying that it would be “socially inaccurate and maladaptive” for the disadvantaged to challenge “social reality” by protesting against the status quo; (4) It fails to explain individual differences and within-group variability in system justification tendencies; (5) Most SIMSA hypotheses presuppose the existence of system justification by assuming that the social system is already perceived as legitimate and stable; and (6) Existing evidence is based on experiments that are subject to numerous interpretational ambiguities. We call for an integrative model of social attitudes that incorporates ideological factors–such as whether one is motivated to defend vs. challenge the status quo–alongside needs for self-esteem and positive group distinctiveness.
AB - This article rebuts arguments made by proponents of the Social Identity Model of Social Attitudes (SIMSA), especially the claim that needs for accuracy and a positively distinct social identity are sufficient to explain system justification by members of disadvantaged groups. There are many serious conceptual and empirical problems with SIMSA: (1) It treats system justification as the outcome of neutral, non-ideological processes, adopting a relativistic position about social injustice; (2) It conflates completely different concepts, such as (a) holding beliefs that favour an out-group vs. believing that one is a member of that group, and (b) recognising that status differences exist vs. believing that those differences are legitimate; (3) It is fatalistic, implying that it would be “socially inaccurate and maladaptive” for the disadvantaged to challenge “social reality” by protesting against the status quo; (4) It fails to explain individual differences and within-group variability in system justification tendencies; (5) Most SIMSA hypotheses presuppose the existence of system justification by assuming that the social system is already perceived as legitimate and stable; and (6) Existing evidence is based on experiments that are subject to numerous interpretational ambiguities. We call for an integrative model of social attitudes that incorporates ideological factors–such as whether one is motivated to defend vs. challenge the status quo–alongside needs for self-esteem and positive group distinctiveness.
KW - Social identity
KW - ideology
KW - social change
KW - social justice
KW - system justification
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150501443&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/10463283.2022.2122319
DO - 10.1080/10463283.2022.2122319
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85150501443
SN - 1046-3283
VL - 34
SP - 244
EP - 267
JO - European Review of Social Psychology
JF - European Review of Social Psychology
IS - 2
ER -