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the psychological biases: Some might take my argument as implying that Black people do not understand larger, long-standing problems in the criminal justice system, or that they are not reliable narrators of their own experience. I do not mean to single out Black people, or indeed, any minority group. I merely present these data to illustrate how humans across demographics remain unaware of existing status quo biases, and how they tend to prioritize stability over social change as a result.
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a theory of system justification: John T. Jost and Mahzarin R. Banaji, “The Role of Stereotyping in System-Justification and the Production of False Consciousness,” British Journal of Social Psychology 33, no. 1 (1994): 1–27, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1994.tb01008.x; John T. Jost, Mahzarin R. Banaji, and Brian A. Nosek, “A Decade of System Justification Theory: Accumulated Evidence of Conscious and Unconscious Bolstering of the Status Quo,” Political Psychology 25, no. 6 (2016): 881–919, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6ue35.
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“the revolutionary role of system rejection”: Chuma Kevin Owuamalam, Mark Rubin, and Russell Spears, “Addressing Evidential and Theoretical Inconsistencies in System-Justification Theory with a Social Identity Model of System Attitudes,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 27, no. 2 (2018): 91–96, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417737136.
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our tendency to uphold and support oppressive systems: Justin P. Friesen et al., “System Justification: Experimental Evidence, Its Contextual Nature, and Implications for Social Change,” British Journal of Social Psychology 58, no. 2 (2018): 315–39, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12278; John T. Jost, “A Quarter Century of System Justification Theory: Questions, Answers, Criticisms, and Societal Applications,” British Journal of Social Psychology 58, no. 2 (2018): 263–314, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12297; Chuma Kevin Owuamalam, Mark Rubin, and Russell Spears, “Revisiting 25 Years of System Motivation Explanation for System Justification from the Perspective of Social Identity Model of System Attitudes,” Journal of Social Psychology 58, no. 2 (2018): 362–81, https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/y29xq.
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we tend to take comfort in the familiar: Aaron C. Kay et al., “Panglossian Ideology in the Service of System Justification: How Complementary Stereotypes Help Us to Rationalize Inequality,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 39 (2007): 305–58, https:// doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)39006-5.
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participants to feel temporarily disempowered: Bastiaan T. Rutjens, Frenk van Harreveld, and Joop van der Pligt, “Yes We Can: Belief in Progress as Compensatory Control,” Social Psychological and Personality Science 1, no. 3 (2010): 246–52, https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550610361782; Bastiaan T. Rutjens et al., “Steps, Stages, and Structure: Finding Compensatory Order in Scientific Theories,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 142, no. 2 (2013): 313–18, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028716.
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uphold the system against critical detractors: Steven Shepherd et al., “Evidence for the Specificity of Control Motivations in Worldview Defense: Distinguishing Compensatory Control from Uncertainty Management and Terror Management Processes,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47, no. 5 (2011): 949–58, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.03.026.
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Bush’s job approval rose to 90 percent: David W. Moore, “Bush Job Approval Highest In Gallup History,” Gallup, September 24, 2001, https://news.gallup.com/poll/4924/bush-job-approval-highest-gallup-history.aspx.
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It remained high for a full two years: “Presidential Approval Rating—George W. Bush,” Gallup, last modified January 11, 2009, https://news.gallup.com/poll/116500/Presidential-Approval-Ratings-George-Bush.aspx. For research detailing the psychological mechanisms for the varying approval ratings of President Bush, see Mark J. Landau et al., “Deliver Us from Evil: The Effects of Mortality Salience and Reminders of 9/11 on Support for President George W. Bush,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 30, no. 9 (2004): 1136–50, https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167204267988; Thomas A. Pyszczynski, Sheldon Solomon, and Jeff Greenberg, In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror (Washington, DC: APA Press, 2003).
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than a common nemesis: Tom Douglas, Scapegoats: Transferring Blame (New York: Routledge Press, 1995); Mark J. Landau et al., “Deriving Solace from a Nemesis: Having Scapegoats and Enemies Buffers the Threat of Meaninglessness,” in Meaning, Mortality, and Choice: The Social Psychology of Existential Concerns, ed. Phillip R. Shaver and Mario Mikulincer (Washington, DC: APA Press, 2012), 183–202; Daniel Sullivan, Mark J. Landau, and Zachary K. Rothschild, “An Existential Function of Enemyship: Evidence That People Attribute Influence to Personal and Political Enemies to Compensate for Threats to Control,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98, no. 3 (2010): 434–49, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017457.
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intentionally evoke symbolic links: Steven Shepherd, Richard P. Eibach, and Aaron C. Kay, “ ‘One Nation Under God’: The System-Justifying Function of Symbolically Aligning God and Government,” Political Psychology 38, no. 5 (2017): 703–20, https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12353.
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why human beings favor the status quo: Keisha M. Cutright et al., “When Your World Must Be Defended: Choosing Products to Justify the System,” Journal of Consumer Research 38, no. 1 (2011): 62–77, https://doi.org/10.1086/658469.
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will feel hesitant to voice concerns: David Skarbek, “Prison Gangs, Norms, and Organizations,” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 82, no. 1 (2012): 96–109, https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.jebo.2012.01.002.
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willing to sacrifice material payoffs: Aaron C. Kay et al., “Inequality, Discrimination, and the Power of the Status Quo: Direct Evidence for a Motivation to See the Way Things Are as the Way They Should Be,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 97, no. 3 (2009): 421–34, https://doi.org/10.1037 /a0015997; Jojanneke van der Toorn et al., “A Sense of Powerlessness Fosters System Justification: Implications for the Legitimation of Authority, Hierarchy, and Government,” Political Psychology 36, no. 1 (2014): 93–110, https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12183; Jojanneke van der Toorn, Tom R. Tyler, and John T. Jost, “More than Fair: Outcome Dependence, System Justification, and the Perceived Legitimacy of Authority Figures,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47, no. 1 (2011): 127–38, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.09.003.
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conformity intensifies: Chuma Kevin Owuamalam and Russell Spears, “Do Humans Possess an Autonomous System Justification Motivation? A Pupillometric Test of the Strong System Justification Thesis,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 86 (2020), https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/jx7rs.
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tightening immigration policies: Experiments 1 and 2. See Kristin Laurin, Steven Shepherd, and Aaron C. Kay, “Restricted Emigration, System Inescapability, and Defense of the Status Quo,” Psychological Science 21, no. 8 (2010): 1075–82, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610375448.
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difficulty transferring to another institution: Experiment 3. See Laurin, Shepherd, and Kay, “Restricted Emigration.”
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policies that perpetuate existing inequalities: Kay et al., “Inequality, Discrimination, and the Power of the Status Quo.”
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When we feel hopeful: Chuma Kevin Owuamalam, Mark Rubin, and Christian Issmer, “Reactions to Group Devaluation and Social Inequality: A Comparison of Social Identity and System Justification Predictions,” Cogent Psychology 3, no. 1 (2016) 1188442, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2016.1188442.
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As women make inroads in society: Luca Caricati and Chuma Kevin Owuamalam, “System Justification Among the Disadvantaged: A Triadic Social Stratification Perspective,” Frontiers in Psychology 11 (2020): 40, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00040.
