System justification drives even disadvantaged groups to internalize inferiority

Evidence

Several consequences follow from taking system-justification seriously as a social-psychological phenomenon. First, to the extent that members of disadvantaged as well as advantaged groups possess at least some needs for system justification, they should internalize a sense of inferiority and experience considerable ambivalence concerning their own group membership. Second, specific stereotype contents should emerge to rationalize particular divisions of labor and unequal distributions of social roles. Third, complementary stereotypes – stereotypes of both disadvantaged and advantaged groups that have both favorable and unfavorable content – should be fairly common, insofar as these lend legitimacy to the system as a whole. Fourth, essentialist forms of stereotyping should be especially effective at satisfying system-justification needs, insofar as they render intergroup differences not only substantial and real but also natural and necessary. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1399

Several consequences follow from taking system-justification seriously as a social-psychological phenomenon. First, to the extent that members of disadvantaged as well as advantaged groups possess at least some needs for system justification, they should internalize a sense of inferiority and experience considerable ambivalence concerning their own group membership. Second, specific stereotype contents should emerge to rationalize particular divisions of labor and unequal distributions of social roles. Third, complementary stereotypes – stereotypes of both disadvantaged and advantaged groups that have both favorable and unfavorable content – should be fairly common, insofar as these lend legitimacy to the system as a whole. Fourth, essentialist forms of stereotyping should be especially effective at satisfying system-justification needs, insofar as they render intergroup differences not only substantial and real but also natural and necessary. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1399

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the four falsifiable predictions of system-justification theory.
• XREF: The essentialism point echoes the ‘natural and necessary’ move seen in caste and race ideology literature, and complements the Milgrom chapters’ institutional focus. — connects to: Chosen inferiority is not contentment but assumed rebellion and despair; Class inferiority functions as an empirically unfalsifiable sense of the rulers’ hidden worth. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 501; Northern-educated Southern leaders internalize the view that their own cultures are inferior — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1380 (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Four linked predictions — internalized inferiority, role-rationalizing stereotypes, complementary content, essentialism as the strongest legitimator — form a compact theory of how unequal systems reproduce themselves psychologically.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1399; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1399