A Person by Situation Account of Motivated System Defense

Abstract

Three studies demonstrate how individual differences in confidence in the sociopolitical system interact with threats that engage the system justification motive to produce system defense. Following threat, participants low, but not high, in system confidence increasingly defended the system, by rejecting system change (Study 1) and preferring domestic over international products (Studies 2 and 3). These findings contribute to the literature on system justification theory in two ways: First, they expand scholars' understanding of when and for whom system-level threats instigate motivational processes of system defense, and, second, they demonstrate that the system justification motive is not merely another example of worldview verification phenomena but instead involves a specific goal to defend the status quo.