Advantaged groups manufacture prejudiced justifications to protect their gains

Evidence

Yet, a provocative line of recent research suggests that upward mobility may also be associated with prejudice. Guimond and colleagues (e.g., Guimond & Dambrun, 2002) found that relative gratification – a comparison that results in a favorable outcome – is associated with increases in expressed prejudice. They reason that people whose groups are overbenefited may generate justifications, including prejudiced beliefs that protect their advantage. Future research may thus address the ways in which specific forms of prejudice correspond to different types of social change. For example, change from which dominant groups benefit may be especially likely to create subtle, ideological forms of prejudice, whereas change involving losses in power or status may generate more open hostility. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1516

Categorization

• QUESTION: Relative gratification producing prejudice runs against Allport’s assumption that upward mobility breeds tolerance — worth investigating which specific outcomes count as ‘overbenefited’ enough to trigger justification bias.
• XREF: connects to: Stigler saw markets as producing wrong knowledge because they satisfy popular prejudice — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 120; Advantaged groups avoid guilt by denying inequality or dodging responsibility — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 1844; Believing in equal opportunity lets advantaged groups justify status inequality and avoid collective guilt. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 202