Movin’ on Up? How Perceptions of Social Mobility Affect Our Willingness to Defend the System
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21209255 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin V Day (0000-0001-5274-1626, Memorial University of Newfoundland, corresponding author), Susan T Fiske (0000-0002-1693-3425, Princeton University) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 267-274 |
| Publication date | 2017-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Psychological and Personality Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1948-5506 • E-ISSN: 1948-5514 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1948550616678454 |
| PMID | 30766651 |
| OpenAlex | W2554705909 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 117 |
| References cited | 38 |
People’s motivation to rationalize and defend the status quo is a major barrier to societal change. Three studies tested whether perceived social mobility—beliefs about the likelihood to move up and down the socioeconomic ladder—can condition people’s tendency to engage in system justification. Compared to information suggesting moderate social mobility, exposure to low social mobility frames consistently reduced defense of the overarching societal system. Two studies examined how this effect occurs. Compared to moderate or baseline conditions, a low social mobility frame reduced people’s endorsement of (typically strong) meritocratic and just-world beliefs, which in turn explained lower system defense. These effects occurred for political liberals, moderates, and conservatives and could not be explained by other system-legitimizing ideologies or people’s beliefs about their own social mobility. Implications for societal change programs are discussed
Ideology · Meritocracy · Perception · Political science · Politics · Social mobility · Social system · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Status quo · System Justification · Cultural Differences and Values · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
Open Borders, Restrained Change
Falling Behind, Losing Trust
Supplemental Material for Meh, Whatever
Why do Americans believe in economic mobility? Economic inequality, external attributions of wealth and poverty, and the belief in economic mobility
The effects of allostatic load, bullying, and social mobility belief on depression among socioeconomically disadvantaged Chinese adolescents
Unemployment and Underemployment
A social identity analysis of responses to economic inequality
Exposure to rising inequality shapes Americans’ opportunity beliefs and policy support
How Economic Inequality Fuels the Rise and Persistence of the Yellow Vest Movement
The Misperception of Racial Economic Inequality
Subjective Social Mobility among Migrant Children in China
Young people’s perceptions of the challenges and opportunities during the Mainland China–Hong Kong convergence
Feelings of Economic Gain in the Past Blind People to Inequality
Perceived Gender Fairness, Perceived Social Mobility, and Life Satisfaction Among South Korean Wage Workers
Psychological Science in the Wake of Covid-19
Social mobility beliefs enhance academic persistence among middle school students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds
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Social class group identity, intergroup attitudes, and views on social mobility and inequality in the U.K. and the U.S
Perception of class mobility moderates the relationship between social class and prosocial behaviour
Perception of economic inequality weakens Americans’ beliefs in both upward and downward socioeconomic mobility
The effects of scarcity mindset on envy
School meritocracy
Learning from contact with poorer (richer) others? Perceived unfairness, prospect of upward mobility, and preferences for taxing the rich
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Loyalty program mobility beliefs and carbon offset
Movin’ on up? A survey experiment on mobility enhancing policies
Responses to social inequality across the life span
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Americans Misperceive Racial Disparities in Economic Mobility
From Challenge to Confidence
Perceived and Ideal Inequality in University Endowments in the United States
The Mismeasure of Culture
Testing the Status-Legitimacy Hypothesis in China
Perceiving Low Social Mobility Induces Zero-Sum Beliefs About Social Hierarchies
Parental Psychological Control and Children's Learning Engagement and Life Satisfaction
The power of success stories
Gendered Cycles of Sexual Objectification
Considering class
Group Status Modulates the Associative Strength Between Status Quo Supporting Beliefs and Anti-Black Attitudes
Lower Perceived Economic Mobility Inhibits Pro-Environmental Engagement by Increasing Cynicism
System Justification Enhances Life Satisfaction of High- and Low-Status People in China
Economic Issues Are Moral Issues
Loss of Social Status and Subjective Well-Being Across the Adult Life Span
Climbing the Invisible Ladder
Social mobility and pro-government mobilization
Perceptions of inequality and meritocracy
Antecedents and consequences of system justification among Iranian migrants in Western Europe
Some psychological determinants of broad union attitudes
The Obama Effect on Perceived Mobility
Does Inequality Beget Inequality? Experimental Tests of the Prediction that Inequality Increases System Justification Motivation
The relationship between barriers despite schooling and school engagement in adolescent students
Education-related resource hoarding in the face of downward socioeconomic mobility
The reciprocal relations between parents’ social mobility beliefs, adolescents’ social mobility beliefs, and academic achievement and their underlying mechanisms
Concern about experiencing downward socioeconomic mobility generates precarious types of motivation among students of color
Growth mindset of socioeconomic status boosts academic-related outcomes
The irony of fairness
Social judgement of defensive and secure social identities among advantaged and disadvantaged groups
Distinguishing between individual and societal socioeconomic mobility beliefs
Looking up or down on the social ladder
They Work Hard for Their Money…or Do They? The Role of Meritocracy Beliefs on Evaluations of Pay Dispersion
Perceptions of upward social mobility and life satisfaction in China
Perceptions of inequality and social mobility in Mexico
Feeling better off? A multidimensional approach to perceived mobility across life domains
The Structural Dilemma of Citizen Participation
Revisiting the status-legitimacy hypothesis
When perception shapes reality
A belief in socioeconomic mobility promotes the development of academically motivating identities among low-socioeconomic status youth
Beliefs About Wealth and Mobility are Related to Evaluations of Economic Inequalities
Influence of subjective social class and social mobility beliefs on self-focused attention
Social capital and career choices among rural Chinese youth
A quarter century of system justification theory
They shouldn’t be richer than me
Three Decades of Social Mobility and Social Policy
From disillusionment to devotion
Eppur si Muove. Social Mobility, Inequality, and Political Trust in Latin America
Rethinking mobility’s impact
Social mobility beliefs lower preferences for genetically-modified foods
Believing in the American Dream Sustains Negative Attitudes toward Those in Poverty
La percepción de desigualdad económica y su influencia sobre la justificación de las diferencias de ingreso legítimas
Social mobility beliefs moderate customers' response to service failure
The cultural correlates of learning poverty
Family Socioeconomic Status and Adolescents’ Academic Achievement
Subjective status and perceived legitimacy across countries
Perceived Economic Inequality and Progressive Taxation
Opposing effects of income inequality on health
Do mindsets shape intentions to help those in need? Unravelling the paradoxical effects of mindsets of poverty on helping intentions
A 32‐society investigation of the influence of perceived economic inequality on social class stereotyping
Perceived social mobility and system justification predict greater well‐being, but less prosocial behaviour
Considering Carnegie's Legacy in the Time of Trump
Who wants a reparative future? Social mobility beliefs, and young South African’s narrative positioning within the historic moral community
It's my fault, I should try harder! The narratives of self‐made upward mobility sustain belief in meritocracy in low social mobility context
Do rich people “deserve” to be rich? Charitable giving, internal attributions of wealth, and judgments of economic deservingness
Inequality in the minimal group paradigm
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Russia's invasion of Ukraine and perceived intergenerational mobility in Europe
Ideology of Affluence
Culture, self, and politics
Social mobility beliefs and attitudes toward redistribution
Consequences of Economic Inequality for the Social and Political Vitality of Society
The Belief in a Just World
Income Inequality and School Bullying
Building a More Mobile America—One Income Quintile at a Time
Income Inequality and Happiness
On Social Stability and Social Change
Moral Outrage Mediates the Dampening Effect of System Justification on Support for Redistributive Social Policies
Subjective Status Shapes Political Preferences
Inside the Turk
Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models
Beliefs about Inequality
Social Dominance
How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments
Building a Better America—One Wealth Quintile at a Time
System Justification, the Denial of Global Warming, and the Possibility of “System-Sanctioned Change”
Antecedents and Consequences of System-Justifying Ideologies
The Evolution of Top Incomes
Income inequality and health
Belief in a Just World and Reactions to Another's Lot
Inequality, discrimination, and the power of the status quo
Americans overestimate social class mobility
A Decade of System Justification Theory
Complementary Justice
Biological conceptions of race and the motivation to cross racial boundaries
When ideology hurts
Racial ambivalence and American value conflict
The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness
The Fear of Equality
Tall Poppies" and "American Dreams
The Legitimation of Inequality
Perceiving Self-Interest
| Unique citing works | 117 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 13 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 113 |