Priming meritocracy and the psychological justification of inequality

By Shannon K. Mccoy, B. Major. 2007

381 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/06d21a8562ee1bdbc49c6109bc8b17f342af913e

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Educationism and the irony of meritocracy: negative attitudes of higher educated people towards the less educated (2017, background): “We included measures of individual mobility (4 items, α = 0.84) (McCoy & Major, 2007), protestant work ethic (5 items, α = 0.91) (Quinn & Crocker, 1999), and belief in a just world (8 items, α = 0.94) (Lipkus, Dalbert, & Siegler, 1996).”
Virtual Virgins and Vamps: The Effects of Exposure to Female Characters’ Sexualized Appearance and Gaze in an Immersive Virtual Environment (2009, background): “In these cases, participants may have felt that the agent's appearance merited a negative response and she " deserved " to be treated badly (McCoy and Major 2007).”
From social class to self-efficacy: internalization of low social status pupils’ school performance (2015, background): “Research has also indicated that the more one believes a system is meritocratic, the more one describes one-self in a stereotyped way (McCoy and Major 2007) and the more one attributes the status of disadvantaged versus advantaged to internal causes (Fraser and Kick 2000; Jost 2001).”
Herd Invisibility: The Psychology of Racial Privilege (2018, background): “As a result, Whites may also be more likely to experience meritocracy as the current state of affairs rather than a social aspiration (Newman, Johnston, & Lown, 2015; see also McCoy & Major, 2007).”
Working for the System: Motivated Defense of Meritocratic Beliefs (2011, background): “…makes them feel better about themselves, but also because it helps to rationalize existing inequalities in society and preserve a view of the social system as fair and just (Jost, Pelham, et al., 2003; Kaiser, Drury, Spalding, Cheryan, & O’Brien, 2009; McCoy & Major, 2007; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999).”
When Hierarchy Wins (2012, background): “…lower-status members to internalize worldviews that legitimize hierarchy, including authoritarianism (Altemeyer, 1998), system justification (Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004), and beliefs in meritocracy (McCoy & Major, 2007), further supports cooperation between lower- and higher-status group members.”
You can win but I can't lose: Bias against high-status groups increases their zero-sum beliefs about discrimination (2015, neutral): “The control article described discrimination against a non-competitive outgroup:CanadianInuit (see McCoy & Major, 2007 for use of this control).”
A functional model of hierarchy (2011, background): “…also psychologically rewarding because it validates individual beliefs in meritocracy and social mobility (Jost, Blount, Pfeffer, & Hunyady, 2003; McCoy & Major, 2007) and is consistent with the preference for equity over equality as a fair and just resourceallocation norm (which is particularly…”
The paradox of inequality: income inequality and belief in meritocracy go hand in hand (2019, background): “, 2013) and sometimes blame themselves for their circumstances (Newman, 1999; McCoy and Major, 2007).”
Social psychological perspectives on the legitimation of social inequality: Past, present and future (2013, neutral): “Stronger endorsement of meritocracy among members of socially disadvantaged groups (e.g., women and Latina/os) is related to greater blame ascribed to their group and weaker attributions to racism or sexism for social inequality (e.g., McCoy & Major, 2007).”