People legitimize existing social arrangements even against their own interests

Evidence

System-justification is the psychological process by which existing social arrangements are legitimized, even at the expense of personal and group interest. In this paper, the concept of system-justification is meant to bring into prominence the degree to which stereotypes emerge and are used to explain some existing state of affairs, such as social or economic systems, status or power hierarchies, distributions of resources, divisions of social roles, and the like (cf. Ashmore & Del Boca, 1981; Eagly & Steffen, 1984; Hoffman & Hurst, 1990; Schaff, 1984; Snyder & Miene, 1994; Sunar, 1978). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2874

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Benevolence masks malice by approving people’s role as their own hangmen — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1112; People can absorb political problems into purely personal solutions — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 1075