The disadvantaged overestimate the powerful’s capabilities, braking social mobility.

Evidence

People are apt to underestimate the extent to which seemingly positive attributes of the powerful simply reflect the advantages of social control. Indeed, this distortion in social judgment could provide a particularly insidious brake upon social mobility, whereby the disadvantaged and powerless overestimate the capabilities of the powerful who, in turn, inappropriately deem members of their own caste well-suited to their particular leadership tasks (p. 494). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2924

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to system justification theory themes run through this book, and to Jonathan Haidt/status psychology literature on respect for hierarchy.