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Post by ck4829 on Feb 11, 2022 0:53:25 GMT
Racial and economic inequality persists. Why do many people deny it? From the coronavirus pandemic shining a light on the wealth gap to ongoing protests over police brutality, the past few years have underscored the persistence of systemic economic and racial inequality in the United States. But some politicians, pundits and members of the public continue to deny and downplay that inequality, despite ample evidence. Where someone falls on the socioeconomic spectrum doesn’t necessarily indicate their views on inequality. In fact, some who are disadvantaged by an unfair economic system may still believe it’s justified. This phenomenon is known as system justification theory — a term that Mahzarin Banaji, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, and John Jost, the co-director of the Center for Social and Political Behavior at New York University, coined in a 1994 article. How does Jost define it? In part: “People want to make peace with the status quo. They want to accommodate to the social, economic and political realities around them so that they’re not pushing against those forces — because they’re very powerful forces,” he said. People who score higher on measures of system justification tend to perceive less inequality than those who score lower, research indicates. www.marketwatch.com/story/racial-and-economic-inequality-persists-why-do-many-people-deny-it-11643151155
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