To succeed at work, you just need to work hard’
How beliefs in professional meritocracy serve to blame unemployed people
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12397387 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charlotte Rauscher (0009-0003-7659-2575, Université de Strasbourg Strasbourg France, corresponding author), Eva Louvet (0000-0003-2472-7098, Université de Strasbourg Strasbourg France), David Bourguignon (0000-0001-5428-422X, Université de Lorraine à Metz Nancy France) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-10 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1052-9284 • E-ISSN: 1099-1298 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/casp.2762 |
| OpenAlex | W4389526668 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 33 |
Unemployed people constitute a stigmatized group. They are perceived as lazy hucksters who could find a job if they just really tried. The aim of the present work was to identify mechanisms underlying this negative perception of unemployment in the context of intergroup relationships. Specifically, we focused on the influence of meritocratic beliefs on the tendency to attribute unemployment to the unemployed individuals themselves. In three experimental studies, participants had to explain the situation of a person presented either as ‘working’ or as ‘looking for a job’. Before this task and in an ostensible unrelated study, meritocratic beliefs were measured. Results showed that participants high in meritocratic beliefs explained unemployment less externally and more internally than participants low in meritocratic beliefs. Interestingly, these differences in causal attributions between high and low meritocratic believers appeared specifically for unemployment in Studies 1 and 2. Taken together, these results suggest that high meritocratic believers tend to consider that unemployed individuals are responsible for their unfortunate situation and have only themselves to blame. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement
Attribution · Blame · Context (archaeology · Economics · Meritocracy · Perception · Political science · Situational ethics · Unemployment · Cultural Differences and Values · Employment and Welfare Studies · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
The rise of the meritocracy, 1870-2033
Psychological and Physical Well-Being During Unemployment
Victim Derogation and Victim Enhancement as Alternate Routes to System Justification
An attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion.
Unemployment impairs mental health
Le mérite contre la justice
Out of Work and Out of Luck? Layoffs, System Justification, and Hiring Decisions for People Who Have Been Laid Off
Social Dominance
The Social Judgeability Approach to Stereotypes
Social dominance theory and the dynamics of intergroup relations
Attitudes towards the unemployed. An analysis of Swedish survey data
Job Search Outcomes for the Employed and Unemployed
Non-conscious forms of system justification
Priming meritocracy and the psychological justification of inequality
Effects of status and outcome on attributions and just-world beliefs
Engines of Social Mobility? Navigating Meritocratic Education Discourse in an Unequal Society
Crowding Out Culture
The merit of meritocracy
Self-serving biases in the attribution of causality
Stigma Controllability and Coping as Predictors of Emotions and Social Support
Visualizing Belief in Meritocracy, 1930-2010
Perceiving the Causes of Success and Failure
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |