Unconscious judgment and system harshness both paradoxically increase system-justification

Evidence

System-justification may occur more frequently when judgements are made implicitly or out of conscious awareness. By focusing attention explicitly on issues pertaining to the system of social arrangements, it may be possible to avoid the consequences of system-justification, as researchers have found with respect to stereotyping in general (Greenwald & Banaji, 1993). A fifth and final factor which may make systemjustification more likely is the insidiousness of the system. Somewhat paradoxically, it may be that the more painful, humiliating, or unfair a system is, the more it evokes the system-justification response, as cognitive dissonance researchers found when investigating the effects of initiation rites (e.g.. Aronson & Mills, 1959; Gerard & Mathewson, 1966). — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2939

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: The paradox that harsher, more humiliating systems evoke MORE loyalty is fertile ground for a story about why people defend oppressive institutions — a cult or dystopian regime where members rationalize their own suffering as proof of worth.
• XREF: Connects to the initiation-rites cognitive dissonance literature (Aronson & Mills) and to ideology-as-rationalization accounts in Jost’s other work. — connects to: All perception is unconscious projection that civilization must learn to control