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Why does the “mental shotgun” fire system-justifying bullets?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2014

Danielle Gaucher  and
John T. Jost
Danielle Gaucher
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9, Canada. d.gaucher@uwinnipeg.cahttp://ion.uwinnipeg.ca/~dgaucher/lab.html
John T. Jost
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003. john.jost@nyu.eduhttp://www.psych.nyu.edu/jost/
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Abstract

We suggest that people privilege explanations relying on inherent rather than contingent factors not only because of an innate cognitive tendency to monitor reality, but because doing so satisfies the desire to perceive the societal status quo as legitimate. In support, we describe experimental studies linking the activation of system justification motivation to the endorsement of inherence-based (essentialist) explanations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 5 , October 2014 , pp. 489
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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