Ego, group, and system justification are stereotypes’ three justificatory functions

Evidence

Jost and Banaji (1994) proposed that there are three major ways in which stereotypes serve as “justificatory devices,” namely as forms of egojustification, group-justification, and system-justification. Only the first of these functions (ego-justification) had received any real attention from psychologists of Allport’s generation, and insights concerning the second function (group-justification) coalesced later (e.g., Tajfel, 1981). Skeletal versions of the third function (system-justification) are discernible in Allport’s (1954/1979) discussions of the “exploitation theory of prejudice” on pp. 209–11 and of “structural views” on pp. 504–6, but it seems that he could not quite integrate a sociological perspective on the American class system with his psychological analysis of rationalization. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1394

Jost and Banaji (1994) proposed that there are three major ways in which stereotypes serve as “justificatory devices,” namely as forms of egojustification, group-justification, and system-justification. Only the first of these functions (ego-justification) had received any real attention from psychologists of Allport’s generation, and insights concerning the second function (group-justification) coalesced later (e.g., Tajfel, 1981). Skeletal versions of the third function (system-justification) are discernible in Allport’s (1954/1979) discussions of the “exploitation theory of prejudice” on pp. 209–11 and of “structural views” on pp. 504–6, but it seems that he could not quite integrate a sociological perspective on the American class system with his psychological analysis of rationalization. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1394

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the three-way justification taxonomy central to system-justification theory.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how institutions stabilize stratification via shared belief. — connects to: System justification theory attributes stereotype endorsement to status-quo legitimization — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 140; the MOC “The Wound of the Label: When Knowing Someone Becomes a Way of Erasing Them”
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1394; John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1394