Citation

Gaucher D, Jost JT. Behav. Brain Sci. 2014; 37(5): 489.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology,New York University,New York,NY 10003.john.jost@nyu.eduhttp://www.psych.nyu.edu/jost/

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S0140525X13003725

PMID

25388035

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.

Language: en