Believing in individual mobility makes low-status people deny their own victimization

Evidence

For example, members of low-status groups who endorse the belief in individual mobility, i.e., that anyone can get ahead in society (a belief that holds people personally responsible for their outcomes) express more ambivalence toward their ingroup and are less likely to see themselves or their ingroup as victims of prejudice, than are members of low-status groups who reject this belief (Major, Gramzow, et al., 2002). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 934

Allport’s assumption of individual variability in targets’ responses to prejudice also is reflected in contemporary approaches (see Major, Quinton, & McCoy, 2002). Consistent with Allport’s idea that targets’ responses to prejudice differ as a function of their personality characteristics, individual differences in dispositions such as optimism (Kaiser, Major, & McCoy, 2004), rejection sensitivity (Mendoza-Denton et al., 2002), social-dominance orientation (Overbeck, Jost, Mosso & Fizlik, 2004), social mobility beliefs (Major, Gramzow, et al., 2002), and group identification (McCoy & Major, 2003) moderate responses to prejudice. For example, members of low-status groups who endorse the belief in individual mobility, i.e., that anyone can get ahead in society (a belief that holds people personally responsible for their outcomes) express more ambivalence toward their ingroup and are less likely to see themselves or their ingroup as victims of prejudice, than are members of low-status groups who reject this belief (Major, Gramzow, et al., 2002). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 934

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does this belief reduce collective action and political mobilization among the disadvantaged?
• XREF: Moderates/extends the internal vs. external attribution handling of prejudice and the cultural -ism claims in the vault on prejudice psychology; belief in individual mobility parallels ‘system justification’ and Protestant-ethic ideology moderation. — connects to: Meritocracy belief blames excluded individuals for their own exclusion — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 711; Beliefs about social permeability, not objective structure, shape whether people pursue mobility or change — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 2680; Individuals systematically deny that status principles explain their own behavior. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 44
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 934; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 934