Low-status people prefer believing their position is just over seeing it as exploitation.

Evidence

Lower status people generally find it less punishing to think of themselves as correctly placed by a just society than to think of themselves as exploited, or victimized by an unjust society. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2267

Categorization

• XREF: A clear forerunner of system justification theory (Jost championed it — the same author), and echoes Marx on false consciousness and the ‘internalization of the oppressor.’
• DEEPTHINKING: The counterintuitive core of system justification — victims prefer ‘correct placement’ to the moral weight of seeing themselves as exploited — sits near the top tier of this book’s ideas.